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STORIES 


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V«l..~.n  1  TVT„  ■»  Poblicatkm  OBtt,  404  North  Wetler 
VOIUme  1— iNO.  2         Editorial  ud  General  Offices.  %-98 


..-•nue.  Ml.  Morris.  Illinois 
Editoriil  ud  General  Offices,  96-98  Park  Place,  New  York  City 


H.  GBRNSBACK,  Piu. 


PublUhrd  by 

STELLAR  PUBLISHING  CORPORATION 


August,  1929 


I.  S.  MANHEIMEB,  Sec'y 


S.  GERNSBACK,  Treat. 


Table  of  Contents 
August 

THE  SILENT  DESTROYER 

By  Henrik  Dahl  Jure  

BEYOND  GRAVITY 

By*  Ed  Ear!  Repp    


J02 


.114 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 

(A  Story  in  Four  Parts)  (Part  2) 

By  Victor  MacClure  ,  132 

THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 
By  Edward  E.  Chappelow  160 

WHAT  IS  YOUR  AVIATION 
KNOWLEDGE? 

Aviation  Questionnaire  182 

AVIATION  NEWS  OF  THE 

MONTH  184 

THE  READER  AIRS  HIS  VIEWS 

Letters  from  Our  Readers  188 

On  the  Cover 

this  month  is  illustrated  the  story  "THE 
SILENT  DESTROYER,"  by  Henrik  Dahl 
Juvc.  Here  we  see  graphically  what  the 
atomic  rays  from  the  Occidenla  destroyer 
do  to  the  Orients  flyer.  The  enemy  ship  is 
cut  in  twain  from  one  end  to  the  other  as  a 
knife  cuts  through  butter.  A  passing  sweep 
culs  off  the  tailpiece  and  the  enemy  ship  is 
hurled  earthward  to  destruction.  It  demon- 
strates the  tremendous  power  of  atomic  rays 
once  they  have  been  developed,  as  they 
surely  will.  


NEXT  MONTH 

THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT,  by  Victor  MacClnre. 
We  are  now  getting  into  the  heart  of  this  great  mystery 
and  we  find  that  the  interest  and  suspense  in  the  story 
keeps  on  increasing  to  the  inevitable  climax.  Yet,  the 
author  always  keeps  ahead  of  you  and  you  are  never  per- 
mitted to  guess  the  solution  to  the  great  problem.  The 
next  installment  is  particularly  interesting  and  thought 
provoking. 

THE  YELLOW  AIR  PERIL,  by  Harl  Vincent.  This 
well-known  author  has  a  technique  all  his  own  and  as  an 
engineer  of  one  of  our  great  industrial  institutions,  he 
knows  his  science  as  few  authors  do.  In  the  present 
story,  he  has  shown  us  how  the  possession  of  some  great 
scientific  secret  as  applied  to  aviation  may  be  used  by 
unscrupulous  powers. 

FLIGHT  IN  1959,  by  Bob  Olsen.  This  versatile  writer 
has  produced  one  of  the  outstanding  air  stories  of  the 
year  and  it  will  be  long  before  it  is  surpassed.  It  cer- 
tainly contains  a  terrific  amount  of  most  excellent 
glimpses  of  what  the  world  of  aviation  will  look  like  in 
1959.  This  story  is  prophetic  in  many  instances,  and 
incidentally,  Mr.  Olsen  has  supplied  a  few  inventions  of 
his  own,  which  we  are  certain  will  be  realized  in  the  very 
near  future. 

THE  AIR  TERROR  by  Lowell  Howard  Morrow.  You 
remember  "Islands  In  the  Air"  by  this  well-known 
author.  Here  he  is  back  with  a  most  exciting  air  story 
full  of  adventure,  science,  fight  and  daring.  Incidentally, 
it  contains  excellent  aviation-science  that  will  hold  you 
spellbound  until  you  finish  the  story. 

AND  OTHERS. 


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AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


99 


At  the  request  of  the  United 
Stales  Government,  S.  of  E. 
Students  Made  the  Acceptance 
Test  of  this  Huge  Electrical 
Generating  Unit,  consisting  of 
4,000  H.P.  Nordberg  Diesel 
Engine  direct  connected  to 
312S  K.  W.,  2300  Volt  Allis 
Chalmers  Generator  built  for 
the  Panama  Canal. 


Bif  MUWIQkM 

electrical  cooeoru  join 

hands  with  the  School  of 
Engineering  to  meet  tho  iniooolou 
demand  tor  trained  Bin. 


WANTED  FOR 


Men  of  Actioi 
Commercial  Electrical  Engineering 


*|*AKES  you  out  of  the  class  of 
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trician, Junior  Electrical  En- 
gineer, or  Commercial  Electrical 
Engineer  in  12  short  months. 
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big  manufacturers  are  actually 
pleading  for  trained  men  and  glad 
to  pay  Big  Salaries  ranging  from 
$2,000  to  $10,000  a  year.  Not  a 
dream — A  DEAD  SURE  FACT  I 
For  25  years  we  have  trained  men 
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positions.  It  is  work  you'll  love. 
No  limit  to  advancement.  Prac- 
tical engineers  teach  you.  They 


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know  What  to  teach  and  How  to 
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mercial machinery  to  work  on  in 
this  school. 

Uncle  Sam  Asks  S.  of  E.  OK! 

Think  of  the  opportunity  to  test 
plants  such  as  this.  The  Nordberg 
Manufacturing  Company  is  only  one 
of  many  large  concerns  that  is  co- 
operating with  School  of  Engineering 
students.  This  type  of  practical  work, 
while  in  school,  insures  your  future 
when  you  graduate.  That's  why  our 
men  are  always  in  demand  and  al- 
ways command  big  salaries.  You  can 
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Learn"  plan. 


Radio  and 
Electrical 
Refrigeration 

Laim  In 
three  moolhi 
—  lull  SO 
dan  and 
jou  can  ba 
am  of  Ux 
Raw  groupl 
0  f  tralnedl 
mon  wool 
will  ,ii  -I 
aod  daTelopI 
tba  DBwaatl 
a  o  d  b  a  a  l 
KfiS  Hemic  Induatrtaa.    BaJlo  aod 

SStS  .acfrtacralloo  .m  Irmmlw  money  laabara 
tor  Ibe  trained  man  oho  act,  Inu  Ibo  eima  eirly. 
V.'.1"",.!™.  ",^"d        bl»-  "iponalhle.  wll-PUtw 

Si-        s&r  F pUM  mVi 


M*al  al  Caalaaertai  a(  Mlrrukaa, 

Dan  «.  w.  8..0H.  MihrauW.  wi.. 

■aSftS  *HnUo»  la  an;  war  plaaaa  nail  ftoa 
Irtellr  •  lluat  «*  the  ami),  and  NEW  %SS 
ruardlu  iba  coocaa  1  ban  narkod  «llb  in  il 


I  Ifommerrlil  Elac-  Una. 
for  nicb  School  Oraif. 

t  Irmrnrrelat  Elea.  F.ni. 

Ulham  1  (a  1  nan 
t  laK  JUL,  B.S.  Da- 

t  ]Au7«Md™"nae. 
[  ttjm  IMmUl  In  nor  Ian  WblU  Too  Uara 


CUc  Bafrliaratloa 
Hadlo 

Aniinura  Wlndlne 
LlrW   Haal  *  Pone 
Practical  HlKtrlrllr 
Home  Lab.  Sartloe 


Natae  

Addraai   

Cllr  

Idaritlin  .... 


100 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


Mechanics  Dramatized! 


Stories  with  a  Scientific  [Background 


The  Editorial  Staff  of  the  Magazine 
Hugo  Gehnsback,  Editor-in-Chief 
David  Lassee,  Literary  Editor 
Frank  R.  Paul,  Art  Director 
ASSOCIATE  SCIENCE  EDITORS 


100  pages,  4-color 
cover  and  many 
illustration  by  ar- 
tist F.  R.  PAUL 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  IN 
THE  AUGUST  ISSUE 

THE  ALIEN  INTELLIGENCE 
By  Jack  Williamson  (Part  II) 

THE  MOON  BEASTS 

By  William  J.  Locke 

THE    FEMININE  METAMOR- 
PHOSIS 

By  David  H.  Keller,  M.D. 

THE  RADIUM  POOL 

By  Ed.  Earl  Repp  (Part  I) 

PROBLEMS  OF  SPACE  FLYING 

By    Capt.    Hermann  Noordung, 
AD.M.E.  (Part  II) 

THE  ETERNAL  MAN 

By  D.  D.  Sharp 

SCIENCE    NEWS    OF  THE 
MONTH 

"WHAT    SCIENCE  FICTION 
MEANS  TO  ME" 

Prize  Contest  Letters 
"THE  READER  SPEAKS" 
Letters  from  Readers 

WHAT    IS    YOUR  SCIENCE 
KNOWLEDGE? 

Science  Questionnaire 


ASTRONOMY 

Professor  Samuel  G.  Barton 

Flower  Observatory 
University  of  Pennsylvania 

Dr.  Clyde  Usher,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 
Curator,  The  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History 

BOTANY 

Professor  Elmer  C.  Campbell 

Transylvania  College 

Prof.  Margvit  Clay  Ferguson, 
Pa.D. 
Wellesley  College 

Professor  C.  E.  Ovens 

Oregon  Agricultural  College 

ELECTRICITY 
Professor  F.  E.  A  satin 

Formerly  of  Dartmouth  College 


MEDICINE 
Dr.  David  H.  Keller 
Western  State  Hospital 

MATHEMATICS 
Professor  C.  Irwin  Palmer 

Dean  of  Students 

Armour  Institute  of  Technology 
Prof.  James  Byrne  Shaw 

University  of  Illinois 
Pro!.  Waldo  A.  Tltmrth,  S.M. 

Alfred  University 

PHYSICS  AND  RADIO 

Dr.  Lee  do  Forest,  Ph.D.,  L.Se. 

PHYSICS 

Professor  A.  L.  Pitch 
University  of  Maine 

ZOOLOGY 

Dr.  Joseph  G.  Voshloka 

Illinois  State  Institute  for 
Juvenile  Research 


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Addison  watched  in  fascination,  aa  Evenrude's  fingers  played  over  the  board.  The  image 
of  the  enemy  ship  danced  and  bobbed  unsteadily,  moving  persistently  across  the  screen. 


102 


THE  SILENT  DESTROYER 


103 


1  >'J' 


CHAPTER  I 
A  Visitor  From  the  Past 

IAPTAIN  BURKE  GAUTHIER  stared 
over  the  wilderness  about  him  with  unsee- 
ing eyes.  Among  the  new  crop  of  saplings 
a  herd  of  deer  grazed  quietly,  their  shadows 
lengthened  by  the  setting  sun.  Nearby,  two 
cub  bears  rolled  and  tumbled  about  in  a  fierce  sham 
battle ;  while  in  the  trees  the  birds  twittered  contentedly 
as  they  snuggled  down  for  the  night.  High  in  the  air 
huge  cigar-shaped  monsters  flashed  silently  by  with  a 
momentary  glistening  of  soft  evening  colors  from 
their  silvery  envelopes.  One  separated  itself  from  the 
orange  glow  of  the  sun,  zipped  by  close  overhead  and 
vanished  behind  the  hills  to  the  west. 

"I  see  that  the  New  York-Shanghai  Limited  is  on 
time,"  said  a  voice  behind  the  brooding  captain.  It 
was  a  soft,  cultured  voice  that  fitted  strangely  into  the 
atmosphere  of  quiet,  purposeful  activity  in  the  sky. 

The  captain  turned  slowly  to  see  his  chief  officer, 
Lieutenant  Evenrude. 

'Yes,"  he  said  in  the  same  well  modulated  tones. 
"Evidently  our  forces  are  successful  in  holding  the 
ground  they  have  taken  in  eastern  Orienta." 

Lieutenant  Evenrude  regarded  his  quiet,  thoughtful 
superior  for  a  moment  as  though  hesitating.  "Any- 
thing new  from  G-2  staff  meeting  this  afternoon?" 

"Yes.  We  think  that  we  know  where  the  Orienta 
forces  are  making  their  anti-nullifiers.  That  is  where 
Ghorski  will  be  stationed.  We  have  instructions  to 
stand  by  at  midnight  for  action  orders  —  you  know 
what  danger  that  means  when  I  explain  that  G-2 
thinks  that  if  we  can  capture  Ghorski  we  may  stop 
the  war.  They  base  their  reasoning  upon  the  assump- 
tion that  the  traitor  has  taken  no  one  into  his  con- 
fidence, but  is  keeping  the  anti-nullifier  a  secret  to 
elevate  himself  to  power  among  the  Orientals.  It's 
strange  that  the  Occidental  Government  should  be  so 
careless  as  to  permit  one  such  as  he  is  to  share  their 
most  carefully  guarded  secrets.  But  to  capture  Ghorski !" 

"He  was  alright  when  his  aura  was  photographed 
upon  his  admission  to  the  service.  He  must  have 
changed  almost  completely  since  then,"  suggested 
Evenrude.  "There  are  rare  cases  where  this  has 
happened,"  he  added. 

"Yes,  I  know.  They  should  check  up  on  those  in 
high  confidence  every 
few  months  as  some  psy- 
chologists have  been  ad- 
vocating. Perhaps  all  this 
trouble  could  have  been 
avoided.  But  since  it  is 
done  and  the  war  is  flam- 
ing, it  is  our  duty  to 
stamp  it  out  as  best  we 
can." 

This  conversation  was 
interrupted  by  a  crack- 
ling in  the  underbrush 
and  presently  a  man 
emerged  from  the  wilder- 
ness. The  captain  stepped 
toward  him  and  arrest- 
ed his  progress. 

"My  friend,  don't  you 
know  that  you  are  on 
forbidden  ground.  Have 
you  a  pass?" 


HEITlUr  DAHL  JOVE 


"No!"  said  the 
man  in  a  voice  com- 
paratively harsh  as 
compared  to  the 
soft  tones  of  the 
two  officers.  "I  just 
[  changed  dimen- 
sional conscious- 
ness and  happened 
to  land  in  this 
woods.  Where  am 

in 

The  two  officers 
looked  at  the  man's 
face  and  then  stared 
more  intently  with 
a  flicker  of  amaze- 
ment in  their  eyes. 

"Haven't  I  seen 
you  before — or  per- 
haps your  picture?"  asked  the  captain.  "Yes,  I  recall 
now — in  our  fifth  grade  history  covering  the  twentieth 
century  there  is  an  account  of  Theodore  A.  Addison. 
You  are  the  living  image  of  him !" 

"The  same,"  the  man  answered  with  a  wrinkle  of 
amusement  about  his  eyes.  "I  have  been  living  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  dimensions  and  during  my  experiments 
discovered  a  means  of  changing  consciousness  and 
clothing  myself  with  three-dimensional  matter.  But 
where  am  I?" 

'You  are  but  a  short  distance  west  of  New  York 
City  and  happen  to  be  on  ground  closed  to  all  except 
those  of  a  character  trustworthy  enough  to  be  en- 
trusted with  some  of  the  most  cherished  secrets  of  the 
Military  Department.  On  which  side  are  you?" 
"Which  side?  What  do  you  mean?" 
"Pardon  me,  I  did  not  think  about  your  having  lived 
in  other  dimensions,  but  we  are  at  war  so  you  under- 
stand that  my  question  is  natural." 

"I  see.  Of  course  I  am  an  American  and  my 
sympathies  are  naturally  with  the  United  States." 

"You  are  slightly  behind  the  times,  if  you  will  excuse 
my  way  of  putting  it.  You  are  trying  to  cramp  your- 
self into  terms  of  the  twentieth  century  while  this  is 
the  twenty-eighth  century.  And  times  have  changed 
slightly.  All  of  the  white  people  have  combined  to 
form  one  nation  called  Occidenta  and  the  colored 
nations  have  united 
form  Orienta.  But 
cannot  accept  your  state- 
ments ;  you  shall  have  to 
go  to  the  classifying  lab- 
oratory for  a  pass.  Lieu- 
tenant Evenrude  will 
accompany  you." 

When  the  two  were 
gone,  Captain  Gauthier 
walked  to  a  huge  boulder 
into  which  he  disap- 
peared through  a  door  in 
the  side. 


/N  presenting  this  extraordinary  story  to  our^% 
readers,  we  make  a  prediction  and  state,  that 
it  is  without  a  shadow  of  a  doubt  scheduled  to 
become  a  classic  in  aviation  fiction.  There  is 
enough  science  contained  in  this  single  story  to 
provide  sufficient  ammunition  for  a  dozen 
others,  which  will  give  the  reader  an  idea  of 
the  tremendous  wealth  of  science  contained  in 
it.  Five  hundred  years  hence,  the  conditions 
and  instrumentalities  used  by  the  author  in  this 
story  will  probably  become  part  of  our  world. 
In  any  event,  the  story  gives  us  as  accurate  a 
prelude  to  the  future  as  it  is  possible  for  a 
trained  scientist  to  give.  And  with  the  skill  of 
a  magician,  he  weaves  the  incidents  so  that  the 
final  climax  of  the  story  is  so  subtle,  that  it 
leaves  one  chuckling.  Particularly  is  this  story 
recommended  to  those  of  us  who  are  used  to, 
and  must  live  among,  irritating  noises  during 
their  entire  lives. 


to 
we 


A  Visitor  Enlightened 

CAPTAIN  Gauthier 
was  sitting  at  his 
desk  in  the  underground 
laboratories  and  hangars 
when  Lieutenant  Even- 
rude,  accompanied  by 


104 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


Addison,  reported  an  hour  later.  Silently  the  lieutenant 
handed  to  his  superior  the  pass  and  classification  papers 
made  out  to  Addison  and  stood  by  while  the  captain 
examined  them. 

"You  stand  high  in  the  confidence  of  the  Occidental 
Government,"  he  said  as  he  gave  the  pass  to  Addison. 
"You  are  free  to  go  anywhere  you  choose." 

"This  'classification'  routine  interests  me — this  'for- 
bidden ground'  interests  me — these  two  nations  in- 
terest me — everything  interests  me.  I  should  like  to 
stay  here  until  1  get  my  bearings  in  this  changed 
world  if  I  may,"  quietly  replied  the  man  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  He  had  caught  the  carefully  modulated 
speech  of  this  day  and  was  striving  to  soften  the  harsh, 
unpleasant  tones  that  was  peculiar  to  his  own  time. 
How  do  they  classify  one?" 

"We  are  expecting  orders  to  go  out  on  a  very 
dangerous  mission,  but  while  we  are  waiting  we  can 
become  acquainted.  During  the  centuries  since  you 
labored  as  an  inventor,  science  has  practically  sup- 
planted superstition.  Denominational  religion,  as  you 
knew  it,  has  disappeared  and  science  has  taken  its 
place.  Our  mathematicians  have  extended  their 
theorems  into  the  seventh  dimension  which  we  believe 
to  be  the  highest  in  the  particular  universe  in  which 
we  exist.  The  control  of  people  through  fear  of  the 
unknown  has  given  way  to  the  power  of  knowledge 
and  it  is  through  knowledge  that  science  is  now  striv- 
ing to  control  the  behavior  of  people. 

"Even  during  the  middle  ages,  the  Steel  Age,  as  we 
call  it,  scientists  discovered  that  the  human  body  is 
surrounded  by  an  aura  and  that  the  condition  of  this 
aura  reflects  the  state  of  health  enjoyed  by  the  in- 
dividual. Through  the  use  of  better  filters  and  highly 
developed  photography  we  have  gone  farther  and  found 
that  the  color  and  other  characteristics  of  the  aura  give 
us  an  index  to  the  mental  and  moral  development  of 
the  person.  By  studying  the  colored  photograph  of 
the  aura  we  can  determine  with  reasonable  certainty 
the  reaction  the  individual  will  exhibit  to  any  ordinary 
stimulus.  Before  elections  the  aura  photographs  of  the 
candidates  are  circulated  and  the  people  can  then  judge 
for  themselves  who  are  best  fitted  for  office.  It  is 
our  purpose  to  place  only  high-minded  men  in  any 
position  of  trust  whether  public  or  private.  Those 
with  criminal  tendencies  are  suppressed  and  kept  where 
they  cannot  do  any  serious  harm.  We  have  succeeded 
in  weeding  unworthy  men  out  of  office,  until  now 
corruption  among  government  and  corporation  officials 
is  practically  unknown. 

"Now  you  will  understand  why  we  were  careful 
in  answering  your  questions  until  we  had  your  classi- 
fication papers.  You  will  notice  that  in  the  picture 
of  your  aura  a  clear  blue  predominates.  That  indicates 
a  marvelous  mental  development.  This  fringe  of  bright 
gold  indicates  a  fine  moral  and  spiritual  development. 
On  the  other  hand,  an  aura  that  is  roiiy,  such  as  a 
brick  red,  dirty  brown  or  gray,  belongs  to  the  type  we 
suppress.  In  extreme  cases  it  may  be  a  smudge  of 
black. 

"You  probably  wonder  at  the  color  of  the  clothes 
which  were  issued  to  you  upon  your  classification. 
You  will  observe  that  your  clothes  are  of  the  same  color 
as  your  aura,  that  all  may  see  to  what  state  of  develop- 
ment you  have  attained.  This  is  a  great  factor  in 
stamping  out  deceit  and  crime,  for  it  is  now  impossible 
for  a  'wolf  to  stalk  in  sheep's  clothing',  as  it  were. 
Of  course,  when  the  system  was  first  inaugurated  a 
few  tried  to  wear  false  colors  but  were  apprehended 


almost  immediately  and,  needless  to  say,  never  repeated 
their  duplicity." 

"I  understand."  Addison  nodded.  "Now  if  I  could 
bother  you  for  information  concerning  the  'forbidden 
ground' ". 

"Surely,"  said  the  captain.  "I  am  an  officer  in  the 
G-2  department  of  the  Occidental  army.  In  other 
words,  I  am  attached  to  the  secret  service.  Our  ac- 
tivities include  more  than  the  ferreting  of  information 
from  the  enemy.  This  underground  laboratory  is 
unknown  to  all  except  those  whose  auras  are  very  nearly 
perfect.  It  is  through  this  scientific  classification  that 
we  are  able  to  maintain  this  secrecy.  Here  we  experi- 
ment with  and  build  anti-nullifiers  for  military  use. 
Until  the  war  broke  out,  it  had  been  merely  a  pre- 
cautionary measure  to  be  used  in  controlling  the  colored 
races,  especially  the  black  race  on  the  African  Con- 
tinent, until  they  had  progressed  to  the  stage  when 
they  grasp  the  idea  of  self-conquest  and  are  self- 
regidating— " 

Ready  to  Depart 

ADDISON  was  about  to  interrupt  with  a  question 
when  the  adjutant  snapped  off  the  lights  and  their 
attention  was  attracted  to  a  lighted  screen  on  one  wall. 
A  face  appeared  and  words  mentioning  this  identity 
sounded  over  the  radio.  The  face  disappeared  and 
the  screen  was  filled  with  the  image  of  a  sheet  of  blue 
paper  covered  with  typewritten  words.  The  adjutant 
touched  a  button  and  the  image  faded  away.  Almost 
instantly  the  lights  were  turned  on  and  the  adjutant 
handed  to  the  captain  a  photographic  film  which  he  had 
taken  from  a  compartment  in  the  wall  opposite  the 
television  screen.  Addison,  following  the  lieutenant's 
example,  looked  over  the  captain's  shoulders  while 
he  read  from  an  exact  facsimile  of  the  image  that  had 
appeared  on  the  screen. 

While  Addison  wondered  at  this  total  lack  of  military 
discipline,  the  captain  finished  reading  and  said  quietly, 
"Action  orders.  To  stations." 

Addison  hesitated,  "May  I  go?"  he  asked  uncer- 
tainly. 

"Surely,  although  I  warn  you  that  our  mission  is 
very  dangerous.  You  must  assume  all  responsibility  for 
your  presence." 

With  a  simple  "Yes",  Addison  followed  the  two 
men  through  several  large  rooms  where  men  were  at 
work  before  machines.  He  marvelled  at  the  lack  of 
noise. 

"I  noticed  that  everything  is  so  silent  and  swift  and 
efficient,"  he  said  to  the  captain. 

"Yes",  the  officer  fell  in  step  with  Addison.  "Even 
during  the  Steel  Age  the  people  were  beginning  to 
outlaw  noise.  We  find  it  unnecessary,  and  abhor  any 
noise  or  harsh  voices." 

Suddenly  Addison  stopped.  He  had  been  so  in- 
terested in  his  questions  that  he  had  not  noticed  that, 
although  they  were  underground  and  that  it  was  night 
outside,  the  rooms  were  lighted  as  though  by  sunlight, 
and  further  that  there  were  no  shadows.  In  fact,  the 
light  seemed  to  come  from  all  directions,  but  was  so 
evenly  distributed  that  it  did  not  hurt  his  eyes. 

"How  do  you  illuminate  the  place?"  he  asked  in 
surprised  tones. 

'T  shall  explain  when  we  are  aboard  the  ship,"  the 
captain  smiled.  We  have  orders  to  depart  immediately 
so  cannot  stop  now." 

They  left  the  factory  rooms  and  after  walking 
through  a  wide  corridor  emerged  in  a  huge  cavern 


THE  SILENT  DESTROYER 


105 


where  rested  a  row  of  torpedo-like  ships,  each  some 
five  hundred  feet  in  length  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter. 
Addison,  with  his  characteristic  eye  for  details,  counted 
twenty  of  the  metallic,  sky-blue  shapes.  Here  and  there 
crews  of  men  worked  silently  about  the  monsters  that 
towered  high  above  them.  The  captain  touched  a  but- 
ton and  there  sounded  in  the  silence  of  the  vast  cavern 
the  faint  musical  tinkle  of  a  bell.  The  sound  was  fol- 
lowed by  two  short  rings  and  Addison  was  amazed  and 
awed  to  see  one  of  the  huge  monsters  rise  slightly  and, 
like  a  sinister  phantom,  drift  slowly  and  soundlessly 
through  a  great  door  into  another  room  where  it 
settled  gently  upon  bunks  built  on  the  floor.  His  scalp 
tightened  as  he  watched  this  graceful  display  of  pon- 
derous and  terrible  forces.  With  the  two  officers,  he 
followed  the  ship  and  the  door  closed  silently  behind 
them.  They  walked  toward  the  center  of  the  towering 
form  where  a  door  opened  and  a  flight  of  steps  slid  to 
the  ground. 

"Watch  the  roof,"  said  the  captain. 

The  light  grew  dim  and  Addison  was  astonished 
and  terrified  to  see  the  roof  of  the  cavern  settle  down 
for  perhaps  a  hundred  feet  and  then  split  through  the 
center,  but  the  lights  were  extinguished  and  he  could 
see  no  more  until  an  opening  appeared  the  length  of 
the  ceiling  and  the  stars  shone  through.  Silently,  like 
the  parting  of  drifting  clouds,  the  roof  opened  until 
the  entire  ceiling  was  gone. 

"A  section  of  the  woods  is  lowered,  trees  and  all, 
and  slid  aside  to  let  us  out,"  the  captain  explained. 
"Come,  we  must  get  aboard." 

They  climbed  up  the  stairs  into  a  small,  dimly-lighted 
room  where  the  captain  closed  a  switch  and  the  stairs 
rose  soundlessly,  disappearing  between  the  walls.  The 
door  closed  behind  them.  But  no  sooner  had  the  door 
shut,  than  the  room  burst  into  the  usual  daylight 
brilliance.  Addison  felt  the  sensation  of  rising  in  an 
elevator  and  turned  to  the  captain  with  a  question  on 
his  lips. 

"Yes,"  said  the  officer,  "this  is  an  elevator.  We 
are  going  to  the  third  floor  where  the  control  room  is 
located." 

CHAPTER  II 
A  Silent  Flight 

THEY  stepped  from  the  elevator  into  a  narrow 
corridor  and  then  to  a  large,  well-appointed  room, 
where  several  officers  sat  at  desks,  one  of  them 
speaking  slowly  and  distinctly  into  microphones 
strapped  to  his  chest.  Others  were  operating  tele- 
vision sets  and  radio  apparatus. 

"To  whom  is  that  officer  telephoning?",  inquired 
Addison  after  carefully  surveying  the  room. 

"He  isn't,"  Lieutenant  Evenrude  answered.  "He  is 
a  stenographer.  He  speaks  into  the  microphones  and 
his  voice  operates  a  silent  typewriter  in  the  filing  room 
in  another  part  of  the  ship.  As  fast  as  the  sheets 
of  paper  are  typed  the  filing  clerk  binds  them  into 
books,  constituting  the  ship's  log.  But  we  must  change 
shoes — here  is  a  pair  of  magnetic  shoes  for  you.  You 
have  to  wear  them  when  the  gravity  is  nullified  or  you 
won't  be  able  to  walk  about.  While  we  are  in  the  air 
nothing  in  the  ship  has  weight  so  you  understand  the 
necessity  for  magnetic  shoes  to  hold  you  to  the  deck." 

Addison  felt  awkward  in  the  shoes  that  clung  to  the 
carpet-covered  steel  floor.  The  others,  however,  seemed 
to  wear  them  with  the  ease  of  long  association.  Sud- 
denly a  strange  feeling  came  over  him,  his  heart  acted 
queerly  and  his  blood  rushed  to  his  head,  leaving  him 


faint  and  groggy.  Then  he  felt  pulled  against  the 
floor.  It  relieved  his  heart  and  drew  some  of  the 
blood  from  his  head,  but  it  was  disconcerting  never- 
theless. The  feeling  that  was  being  forced  against 
the  floor  gradually  lessened  to  be  supplanted  by  a 
sensation  of  lightness  that  left  him  giddy.  He  felt 
as  though  he  were  some  plant  on  an  ocean  floor  and 
that  his  body  were  waving  gently  in  the  water. 

With  considerable  difficulty  Addison  tottered  across 
the  room  to  a  chair  into  which  he  attempted  to  drop. 
But  attempt  to  sit  down  ended  in  his  merely  folding 
up.  Grasping  the  arms  of  the  chair,  however,  he  drew 
himself  into  the  easy  depths  of  the  thick  cushions 
where  he  rested  with  a  weightless  feeling.  He  was 
able  to  remain  so  only  by  clinging  lightly  to  the  chair 
arms.  There  were  straps  attached  to  one  side  of  the 
chair  and  after  buckling  himself  in  he  felt  more  secure. 

While  Addison  struggled  to  maneuver  his  unwield^ 
person  about  this  strange  place  of  no  gravity,  Captain 
Gauthier  was  busy  at  a  desk  where,  Addison  observed, 
he  kept  his  fingers  hovering  over  several  banks  of  keys 
similar  to  the  old-fashioned  typewriter.  Occasionally 
the  captain  pressed  certain  keys  while  he  watched  a  row 
of  small  gauges  along  the  wall,  back  of  the  desk. 
"Evidently  the  controls,"  thought  Addison. 

He  felt  a  suddenl  pressure  against  the  chair  as 
though  an  unseen  hand  had  shoved  against  his  chest, 
but  this  sensation  gradually  lessened  and  ceased  alto- 
gether. At  the  same  time,  the  lights  were  dimmed 
and  soft  glow  flashed  up  on  the  four  television  screens 
before  the  control  table.  The  captain  glanced  over 
the  screens,  relinquished  the  controls  to  Lieutenant 
Evenrude  with  some  brief  instructions  and  then  came 
over  to  the  distressed  visitor. 

"I  suppose  that  the  sensation  of  flying  is  rather 
unique  for  one  who  has  not  traveled  in  anything  but 
the  old  gravity-defying  type  of  ship,"  he  smiled. 

"Flying!"  Addison  gasped.  "Are  we  under  way 
now!  I  have  been  waiting  for  the  motors  and  pro- 
pellers to  start!" 

The  captain  smiled.  "We  are  now  twenty  miles 
above  the  earth's  surface  and  have  been  traveling  on 
our  course  at  about  a  thousand  miles  an  hour  for 
several  minutes.  We  nullified  gravity  and  rose  ver- 
tically. It  was  during  this  acceleration  that  you  felt 
pushed  against  the  floor,  and  as  we  reached  our  level 
of  flight  the  negative  acceleration  gave  you  the  feeling 
of  lightness.  While  we  were  accelerating  our  forward 
speed  you  no  doubt  experienced  a  pressure  against  the 
back  of  your  chair." 

Addison  turned  this  astonishing  information  over  in 
his  mind  for  a  few  moments  and  then  asked,  "But 
how  do  you  drive  this  ship  without  motors  and  pro- 
pellers, and  what  makes  the  vehicle  so  steady  in  the 
air  currents  ? 

"We  have  discovered  a  new  force  which  we  have 
harnessed  for  our  needs.  Immortal  in  our  history  is 
a  Hindoo  scientist  of  the  Steel  Age  who  conducted  the 
first  experiments  which  led  to  this  development.  It 
is  the  same  force  which  bursts  the  seed  pod  and  pushes 
the  frail  dandelion  through  the  pavement,  although, 
of  course,  we  apply  it  on  a  much  larger  scale. 

"We  stabilize  the  ship  with  tiny,  full-floating  gyros- 
copes similar  to  those  used  in  the  gyroscopic  compass 
and  mounted  in  the  bottom  of  the  ship  in  a  small 
gondola  against  which  the  gravity  has  not  been  nullified. 
When  the  ship  changes  its  course  slightly,  or  in  other 
words,  when  the  housing  about  the  gyroscopic  ap- 
paratus changes  position  slightly,  the  shafts  on  which 


106 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


the  gyroscopes  rotate,  close  electrical  contacts  as  they 
strive  to  retain  their  positions.  These  contacts  close 
relays  which  direct  the  forces  used  in  opposing  the 
external  forces  striving  to  buffet  the  ship  about.  Using 
a  gyroscopic  control  is  more  satisfactory  than  a  large 
stabilizer,  especially  in  a  battleship,  for  by  simply  open- 
ing a  multiple-pole  switch  we  disconnect  the  stabilizer 
and  take  over  full  control  of  the  ship  during  battle 
maneuvers.  A  large  brute-force  stabilizer  would  be 
a  detriment  under  such  conditions.  All  of  these  opera- 
tions are  handled  by  remote  control  from  the  keyboard 
on  the  control  table. 

Addison  Marvels 

««T)UT  you  were  asking  about  the  lighting  ap- 

Jj  paratus.  I  recall  from  history  that  at  your  time, 
(hiring  the  Steel  Age  you  thought  yourselves  quite 
accomplished  when  you  succeeded  in  heating  a  wire 
in  vacuum  or  some  inert  gas,  and  thus  securing  a 
light  having  an  efficiency  of  three  or  five  per  cent. 
We  use  cold  light  with  an  efficiency  of  ninety  to  ninety- 
five  per  cent.  We  are  using  but  one  lamp  at  present 
in  this  room  and  it  consumes  a  little  less  than  three 
watts  yet  it  is  as  effective  as  ninety  or  a  hundred  watt 
lamp  of  the  old  style. 

"There  is  nothing  mysterious  about  it,  however, 
much  as  it  differs  from  the  old  method.  We  use  a 
tiny  short-wave  radio  transmitter  sealed  in  a  tube  of 
fused  quartz.  Here,"  he  opened  a  compartment  in  the 
wail  and  took  out  a  spare  tube.  "You  will  notice  that 
point  inside  the  tube— it  is  tipped  with  a  radio-active 
material  which  emits  a  stream  of  electrons.  The  grid 
and  plate  are  connected  electrostatically  for  the  feed- 
back. The  rate  of  oscillation  is  varied  until  it  is  of 
the  frequency  of  white  light  and  the  movable  adjust- 
ment is  welded  in  place  with  a  ray  welder  focussed 
through  the  quartz  tube.  We  have  other  lamps  on 
board  that  are  adjusted  to  emit  colored  light ;  and  the 
searchlights  we  are  using  at  the  moment  are  infra-red. 
These  rays  are  invisible  but  penetrate  the  mists  well, 
and  the  reflected  beams  are  picked  up  on  the  televi- 
sion plates  around  the  shell  of  the  vessel,  being  inter- 
preted as  white  light  on  the  screens  before  the  control 
table.  We  are  thus  able  to  see  where  we  are  going  and 
to  view  the  ground,  while  to  anyone  without  apparatus 
we  are  invisible.  We  have  an  adjustable  light  in 
another  room  if  you  care  to  examine  it" 

With  the  help  of  the  captain,  Addison  managed  to 
navigate  into  another  room  where  the  officer  touched 
a  button  on  the  door  casing  and  the  room  was  flooded 
with  white  light.  With  a  dial  on  the  switch  plate, 
connected  through  the  walls  with  the  mounting  of  the 
lamp,  the  officer  rotated  the  bulb,  changing  the  light 
through  the  entire  spectrum  of  colors  as  he  varied 
the  wave  length.  The  colors  were  brilliant,  not  at  all 
like  the  results  from  the  old  method  of  shining  a  white 
light  through  a  prism,  for  there  was  something  vital 
about  the  colors  emitted.  And  Addison  marveled. 

"I  have  been  wondering  why  you  have  the  control 
room  in  the  center  of  the  ship  instead  of  out  where 
you  could  see  through  windows." 

"We  place  the  control  room  there  for  the  greatest 
protection  against  the  enemy.  But  you'll  understand 
that  better  when  I  show  you  our  fighting  methods." 

"You  were  going  to  tell  me  about  the  two  nations 
and  the  reason  for  the  war,"  said  Addison  when  he 
had  watched  the  light  for  a  time. 

"Yes,"  said  the  officer,  starting  for  the  control  room 
where  he  assisted  Addison  to  a  chair  and  pulled  him- 


self into  another. 

"You  recall  that  I  told  you  of  how  science  is  now 
in  control  of  all  governmental  and  industrial  activities," 
the  captain  continued  when  they  had  strapped  them- 
selves into  their  chairs.  "That  is  also  true  of  educa- 
tion, of  course.  Through  our  educational  system  in 
the  hands  of  scientists  we  are  gradually  bringing  the 
people  to  a  consciousness  of  world  citizenship  and  have 
succeeded  to  the  extent  that  all  white  nations  have 
been  consolidated  into  one  indivisible  and  harmonious 
country.  That  is  true  also  of  the  colored  races.  We 
were  just  getting  to  the  place  where  we  thought  that 
we  were  civilized  enough  to  enable  us  to  unite  the 
two  nations  and  make  a  truly  unified  world  with  all 
military  institutions  delegated  to  the  museum  as  relics 
of  barbaric  ages. 

"But  one  man,  in  whom  there  has  developed  a 
collosal  selfishness  and  a  distorted  ambition,  has  dis- 
rupted our  cherished  plans  and  thrown  us  into  a 
frightful  war.  This  man,  Ghorski  by  name,  was  once 
a  member  of  the  experimental  force  working  on  the 
anti-nullifier  which  has  been  developed  by  the  Occi- 
dental G-2  service  and  held  as  a  secret.  Ghorski, 
whose  aura  was  good  at  the  time  of  his  admittance 
to  the  service,  evidently  changed,  as  may  happen  in 
rare  instances.  Taking  advantage  of  the  desire  of  the 
colored  races  for  revenge  after  the  suppressions  and 
extortions  by  some  of  the  white  nations  during  the 
Steel  Age,  he  has  convinced  them  that,  by  their  superior 
numbers,  they  can  overrun  the  white  race  and  sub- 
jugate them.  He  has  a  powerful  personality  and 
has  succeeded  in  rousing  the  desire  for  world  dominion 
among  ambitious  leaders  despite  the  earnest  opposition 
of  the  farseeing  statesmen  and  writers  of  Orienta.  It 
is  very  discouraging.  Truly  he  is  an  evil  genius  such 
as  one  might  expect  to  read  about  in  ancient  history. 

"Our  aim  of  education  under  the  scientific  regime  is 
to  direct  the  naturally  aggressive  tendency  of  the  human 
being  into  channels  of  personal  conquest.  By  this  I 
mean  that  there  are  vast  possibilities  in  the  human  mind 
which  can  be  developed  only  through  constant  effort, 
and  it  is  toward  the  unfolding  of  these  latent  powers 
and  away  from  the  false  ambition  for  wealth  and  per- 
sonal power  that  our  psychologists  are  arranging  the 
curriculums.  We  realize  that  this  is  the  only  means 
by  which  we  can  hope  to  realize  our  ideal  of  world 
peace." 

The  Age  of  Man 

i«T  HAVE  been  wondering  how  it  happens  that  I 

X  found  a  wilderness  a  short  distance  west  of  New 
York,"  Addison  mused  while  he  digested  the  informa- 
tion he  had  just  received. 

"That,"  said  the  officer,  "is  very  simple.  We  make 
all  of  our  food  in  laboratories  and  have  little  use  for 
cultivation  of  large  areas.  We  have  allowed  most  of 
it  to  return  to  its  natural  state.  We  prohibit  the  killing 
of  animals,  having  found  that  this  law  promotes  our 
efforts  toward  peace.  Our  citizens  live  along  the 
rivers  and  other  scenic  spots,  leaving  much  of  the  unat- 
tractive land  wild  and  elemental." 

For  some  time  they  sat  in  silence.  Addison  glanced 
from  time  to  time  at  a  clock  mounted  above  the  control 
table  and  became  interested.  They  had  started  on  their 
dangerous  mission  at  midnight  and  had  traveled  for 
an  hour  and  a  half,  but  the  clock  indicated  the  time  as 
twelve  :ten  and  now  was  stationary. 

"1  see  your  clock  has  stopped,"  he  smiled  at  the  cap- 
tain. Surely  he  could  find  one  little  detail  that  did  not 


THE  SILENT  DESTROYER 


107 


function  perfectly. 

The  officer  laughed.  "No,  that  clock  never  stops.  It 
is  a  local  time  clock,  indicating  the  local  time  at  any 
spot  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  over  which  we  happen 
to  be  flying  at  the  moment.  Its  speed  is  'controlled  by 
a  compass  and  an  earth  speed  indicator,  all  corrections 
being  automatic.  We  are  now  traveling  toward  the 
west  at  about  a  thousand  miles  per  hour,  so  we  are,  as 
it  were,  keeping  up  with  local  time.  Hence  the  hands 
are  stationary.  Should  we  change  our  course  the  com- 
pass and  speed  indicator  would  keep  the  clock  on  the 
proper  local  time.  For  instance,  if  we  were  now  flying 
due  south  or  due  north  along  a  meridian  where  the 
local  time  is  the  same,  the  clock  would  run  at  normal 
speed.  On  the  other  hand,  were  we  flying  due  east  at 
the  speed  we  are  now  traveling  westward,  the  clock 
would  run  at  double  speed.  Again,  should  we  increase 
our  present  speed  in  the  course  we  are  now  holding 
the  clock  would  run  backwards.  This  is  a  great  factor 
in  determining  our  exact  position  during  inclement 
weather." 

Addison  grinned  sheepishly  and  looked  at  the  clock 
with  new  respect. 

Again  there  was  silence  and  the  visitor  yawned 
despite  his  efforts  at  suppression. 

"Here,"  said  the  commander,  handing  him  a  small 
green  tablet.  "This  i9  a  counter-irritant  and  antitoxin 
against  the  effects  of  fatigue  poison.  Although  we 
sleep,  realizing  that  sleep  has  other  purposes  than  the 
mere  resting  and  elimination  of  fatigue,  we  resort  to 
these  tablets  during  emergencies  such  as  the  present 
one." 

Addison  swallowed  the  pill  and  gradually  the  feeling 
of  sleepiness  and  fatigue  gave  place  to  a  sensation  ot 
freshness  as  though  he  had  been  asleep  for  several 
hours. 

"Of  course,"  the  marveling  visitor  hesitated,  "all 
of  these  wonders  are  commonplace  to  you,  but  you 
realize  that  they  are  intensely  interesting  to  me,  and  I 
trust  that  you  understand  my  position  and  sympathize 
with  me  while  I  ask  numerous  questions." 

"Certainly,"  the  captain  laughed.  "I  have  often 
thought  that  it  might  be  curious  to  conduct  a  person 
of  the  Steel  Age  through  our  present  civilization — and 
I  find  it  interesting." 

"By  the  way,  you  call  the  twentieth  century  the  'Steel 
Age.'  What  do  you  call  this?" 

"We  terra  this  the  'Age  of  Man'  because  man, 
through  his  scientific  knowledge  and  his  change  of 
purpose  has  taken  practically  full  control  of  the  earth." 

CHAPTER  in 
Addison  Learns  More 

ADDISON  rested  back  against  the  chair  and 
turned  his  attention  to  the  screens  above  the  con- 
■  trol  table.  They  appeared  similar  to  the  one  over 
which  the  captain  had  received  his  orders,  but  each 
was  flooded  with  an  even  light.  Suddenly  he  leaned 
forward  with  interest  for  he  saw  a  shape  nose  into  the 
field  of  light.  Gradually  it  appeared— a  flying  craft 
similar  to  the  one  in  which  he  rode,  although  he  did 
not  know  that  it  was  twice  the  size  of  the  battle  craft 
"What  is  that?"  he  indicated  the  image  of  the  craft 
drawing  away  on  the  other  edge  of  the  screen. 

"That  is  the  Alaska-San  Francisco  Express  crossing 
our  course  two  miles  below.  That  television  screen  is 
connected  with  a  transmitter  plate  in  the  bottom  of  the 
ship.    Our  ship  dispatcher  routed  with  them  twenty 


minutes  ago  and  they  chose  the  lower  level.  I  see  they 
are  three  seconds  behind  schedule." 

"You  use  television  a  great  deal.  How  does  it 
function?" 

"It  is  similar  to  the  ones  used  during  the  Steel  Age 
although  vastly  improved.  Come  and  I'll  show  you  the 
apparatus." 

In  a  small  room  on  the  other  side  of  the  wall,  against 
which  the  control  table  stood,  the  officer  opened  a  com- 
partment revealing  the  maze  of  connections  and  ap- 
paratus constituting  the  hidden  part  of  the  control 
mechanism.  Much  to  Addison's  amazement,  the  officer 
walked  up  the  wall  that  he  might  better  view  the  tele- 
vision apparatus  which  was  too  high  for  easy  inspection 
from  the  floor.  Although  the  sense  of  up  and  down 
was  rather  vague,  it  seemed  to  Addison  that  the  floor 
was  normally  toward  the  earth's  center  of  gravity,  but 
when  he  stopped  to  think,  he  recalled  that  they  were 
released  from  the  dominance  of  gravity,  and  proceeded 
to  follow  the  officer,  a  little  apprehensively  to  be  sure. 
With  the  idea  of  assisting  himself  up  the  wall  with  his 
hands  after  the  manner  of  climbing  a  ladder,  Addison 
ventured  to  follow  the  captain,  and  then  straightened 
up  perpendicular  to  the  wall  with  an  expression  of 
utter  amazement.  Instead  of  a  feeling  that  he  was 
walking  up  the  wall,  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  entire 
room  rotated  ninety  degrees,  leaving  the  floor  to  form 
one  wall  of  the  room  and  the  wall  which  he  was  climb- 
ing to  take  the  place  of  the  floor.  He  looked  at  the 
ceiling,  now  forming  a  wall,  and  wondered  if— he  tried 
it  and  surely,  the  room  appeared  to  rotate  until  the 
ceiling  was  where  the  floor  had  been'  and  the  floor 
above  him,  constituting  the  ceiling!  Mulling  this  phe- 
nomenon in  his  mind,  Addison  stepped  back  onto  the 
wall,  but  which  instantly  seemed  to  become  the  floor, 
and  stopped  beside  the  captain  where  he  stood  looking 
down  into  the  compartment  containing  the  television 
apparatus.  The  captain,  who  had  watched  the  visitor's 
experiment,  laughed. 

'Where  there  is  no  gravity  as  in  this  case,"  he  ex- 
plained, "we  have  no  definite  sense  of  up  or  down,  but 
we,  and  our  ancestors  for  centuries,  have  come  to  re- 
gard whatever  we  are  standing  upon  as  being  below  us 
or  down,  so  we  instinctively  regard  whatever  our  feet 
rest  upon  as  being  down,  although  now,  during  normal 
flight,  the  floor  happens  to  be  toward  the  earth.  In 
fact,  since  the  sensation  of  up  and  down  is  a  matter  of 
individual  conception,  this  wall  is  actually  down  and 
the  opposite  wall  is  up  while  we  are  standing  here. 
During  battle  maneuvers  the  ship  often  turns  com- 
pletely over  although  we  have  no  sensation  of  the  move- 
ment— there  is  no  movement  except  to  one  who  might 
happen  to  watch  us  from  some  external  point.  We 
who  are  accustomed  to  riding  in  this  type  of  ship  can 
feel  changes  through  the  centrifugal  force  which 
appears  when  the  vessel  rotates." 

"I  have  observed  that  the  laws  of  inertia  and  centri- 
fugal force  are  still  operative,  despite  the  lack  of 
gravity." 

"Yes.  These  phenomena  deal  with  mass  rather  than 
weight  in  motion  or  at  rest  And  here  we  have  a  case 
of  mass  without  weight." 

"I  understand,  although  it  startled  me  at  first.  Now, 
about  this  television." 

■  "Since  the  general  principle  of  this  machine  is  iden- 
tical with  that  of  the  old  Steel  Age  apparatus  for  trans- 
mitting motion  pictures,  we  might  well  review  the  old 
machine  as  a  starting  point.  As  you  know,  the  light 
from  the  subject,  for  example  a  person's  face,  is  dj- 


108 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


vided  mechanically  into  a  series  of  horizontal  lines  or 
rays  of  varying  intensity.  These  rays  act  upon  a  light 
sensitive  'valve'  which  passes  more  or  less  electrical 
current  as  the  intensity  of  light  from  various  parts  of 
the  face  opens  or  closes  this  valve.  This  varying  cur- 
rent is  then  used,  after  being  'amplified,'  to  distort  the 
carrier  wave  of  a  regular  broadcast  transmitter  as 
though  it  were  the  varying  current  from  a  microphone. 

"This  distorted  carrier  wave  is  then  picked  up  on  the 
receiving  antenna  and  used  to  operate  the  valves  in  an 
ordinary  receiving  set.  When  the  distortion  is  'ampli- 
fied' sufficiently  it  is  used,  instead  of  operating  a  loud- 
speaker, to  vary  the  intensity  of  the  light  from  a  special 
lamp.  The  varying  light  from  this  lamp  is  then  cast  in 
a  thin  line  upon  a  screen  and  when  the  placing  of 
these  lines  of  light  are  exactly  synchronized  with  the 
pick-up  at  the  transmitter  we  have  an  image  of  the 
original. 

"By  way  of  analogy :  If  we  should  stretch  pieces  of 
thread  tightly  across  a  frame,  so  close  together  that  the 
result  appeared  to  be  cloth,  and  then  paint  with  dyes 
a  picture  on  this  cloth  after  which  we  should  remove 
the  threads  and  tie  them  end  to  end,  we  have  accom- 
plished the  purpose  of  the  pick-up.  If  we  then  blow 
the  assembled  length  of  thread  through  a  tube  to  some 
distant  point  we  have  done  the  work  of  the  transmitter. 
If,  at  the  receiving  point,  they  cut  the  lengths  of  thread 
apart  and  assemble  them  in  a  frame  exactly  as  they 
originally  were  they  have  acted  as  a  receiver— they  have 
the  picture. 

"Because  in  the  first  attempts  they  used  a  motor- 
driven  disc  through  which  was  drilled  a  spiral  of  holes, 
for  lining  the  image  at  the  transmitter  and  also  for 
laying  it  upon  the  screen  at  the  receiver,  the  image, 
because  of  the  slowness  and  other  limitations  of  the 
disc,  was  necessarily  very  small  and  coarse.  And  syn- 
chronizing the  receiving  disc  with  that  of  the  trans- 
mitter was  a  source  of  constant  trouble." 

A  .Sumptuous  Meal 

««TN  our  present  day  apparatus,"  continued  the  officer, 
J.  indicating  a  huge  lens,  "the  image  to  be  transmitted 
is  brought  to  a  flat  field  at  the  focal  plane  of  this  lens. 
This  image,  which  is  very  bright,  is  divided  or  lined  by 
these  three  tiny  lenses— there  is  one  for  each  primary 
color— and  the  threads  of  light  focused  upon  these 
three  special  light-sensitive  valves  for  transmission. 
These  tiny  lenses — pick-up  lenses  we  call  them — are 
connected  by  levers  to  highly  responsive  piezo  crystals. 
These  crystals,  which,  as  you  know,  change  shape  in 
response  to  varying  or  alternating  electrical  currents, 
are  agitated  by  crystal-controlled  local  oscillators,  mov- 
ing the  pick-up  lenses  on  their  vertical  axes  through 
an  arc  that  just  covers  the  twenty-inch  wide  image 
field.  The  lenses  are  moved  on  a  horizontal  axis  to 
cover  the  twenty-inch  height  of  the  field,  being  moved 
up  and  then  down  to  cover  the  field  twenty  times  per 
second  by  a  carefully  governed  motor.  Thus,  by  im- 
pressing upon  the  piezo  crystals  an  alternating  current 
with  a  frequency  of  40,000  cycles  per  second,  we  have 
4,000  lines  per  picture  for  each  color  or  12,000  lines 
for  the  picture  in  colors — 600  lines  per  inch  of  screen. 
By  a  similar  arrangement  we  lay  the  varying  light  on 
the  screen  at  the  receiving  station.  Since  we  have  a 
large  number  of  transmitters  or  'plates'  as  we  call  them, 
set  in  various  parts  of  the  vessel's  shell  for  viewing  our 
surroundings,  we  use  a  large  oscillator  to  control  all  of 
the  piezo  crystals  for  the  televisions,  lookouts  and 
telescopes." 


"Telescopes!" 

"Yes.  By  using  many  of  the  tiny  pick-up  lenses  at 
the  transmitter  and  receiver  making  hundreds  of  lines 
to  the  inch  and  examining  the  receiving  screen  through 
a  microscope  we  have  a  telescope." 

Back  in  the  control  room  the  captain  explained  how 
the  four  screens  above  the  control  table  could  be 
switched  over  to  any  of  the  receiving  plates  about  the 
hull,  revealing  the  surroundings  in  the  light  of  the 
infra-red  searchlight. 

"And  here  is  a  telescope,"  said  the  officer,  indicating 
a  screen  set  in  a  table  over  which  was  mounted  an  eye- 
piece in  a  swinging  support.  He  closed  one  of  several 
switches  and  a  cone  of  light  appeared  on  the  screen. 

"That  is  the  glare  of  the  infra-red  searchlight  di- 
rected toward  the  ocean." 

Addison  peered  through  the  eye-piece  and  was 
startled  to  see  how  close  the  waves  appeared. 

They  sat  for  a  time  in  silence  and  then  the  com- 
mander picked  up  a  'phone  and  talked  for  a  few 
moments.  Presently  a  chef  appeared  bearing  a  tray 
of  small  cups  which  he  served  to  all  in1  the  room. 
Addison  looked  into  his  cup  of  pills  dubiously  and 
turned  his  questioning  eyes  toward  the  captain. 

"I  told  the  chef  what  your  colors  are  and  he  arranged 
a  menu  best  suited  to  your  needs.  This  is  synthetic 
food  from  our  laboratories,"  said  the  officer,  swallow- 
ing one  of  the  pellets. 

Addison  grinned  several  times  during  what  the  cap- 
tain called  a  leisurely  meal.  How  different  from  the 
real  feast  of  the  Steel  Age !  This  struck  him  as  being 
ludicrous  and  he  chuckled  inwardly  as  the  dozen  or  so 
little  pills  slid  down.  "I  wonder  what  these  people 
would  do  if  they  were  at  an  old-time  table  with  its  back 
nearly  broken  under  the  weight  of  food,"  he  thought, 
struggling  to  hide  his  amusement  from  his  gracious 
host. 

They  settled  down  for  an  "after  dinner  chat"  as  the 
captain  put  it,  and  Addison  bubbled  over  with  mirth. 
It  was  more  of  an  "after  pill  chat." 

"What  is  this  mission  we  are  on?"  he  asked  finally. 

"We  are  on  our  way  to  a  spot  in  the  Likiang  moun- 
tains near  the  village  of  Likiang  on  the  Yangtze  river. 
One  of  our  agents  reports  that  there  is  unusual  activity 
there  and  thinks  that  is  the  place  where  the  Orientals 
are  making  their  anti-nullifiers — machines  that  destroy 
the  gravity  nullifying  power  of  any  ship  during  the 
time  they  are  directed  at  the  ship.  If  that  is  true,  and 
we  are  fairly  certain  that  it  is,  you  can  imagine  that 
the  spot  is  protected  by  every  means  at  their  disposal 
and  that  we  are  going  into  the  lions'  den.  But  orders 
are  orders."  '  ~~  — 

CHAPTER  IV 
A  Slight  Annoyance 

AGAIN  the  conversation  lapsed  and  Addison 
watched  the  screens  over  the  control  table.  Sev- 
"eral  ships  crossed  their  field  of  vision,  but  every 
move  seemed  to  be  so  carefully  directed  that  he  ceased 
to  worry  about  the  possibility  of  a  collision  at  this 
frightful  speed.  The  ship  was  silent,  ominously  silent, 
Addison  thought,  although  the  crew  seemed  to  be  at 
ease.  It  did  not  seem  possible  that  this  was  a  battle 
craft  on  a  dangerous  mission — it  was  more  like  a 
pleasure  trip.  Gradually  a  slight  hum  pushed  its  way 
through  the  stillness.  The  captain  listened  a  moment 
and  a  look  of  annoyance  crossed  his  face. 
"Someone  is  careless,"  he  said,  pushing  a  button. 
A  man  appeared,  evidently  a  mechanic. 


THE  SILENT  DESTROYER  109 


"What  is  that  hum?"  demanded  the  captain.  "It  is 
very  annoying." 

"The  commutator  on  the  lighting  generator  has  a 
hard  bar,"  the  man  explained.  "I  was  going  to  turn 
it  down  this  afternoon  but  the  unexpected  orders  inter- 
rupted me." 

"I  see.  Cut  the  load  over  on  the  other  machine  and 
take  this  one  down  to  the  machine  shop  for  repairs. 
We'll  take  a  chance  on  the  one  machine — it's  better 
than  enduring  that  annoying  hum.  And  tell  them  to 
rush  die  job." 

"Regardless  of  how  carefully  one  trains  a  crew  there 
are  always  evidences  of  negligence,"  the  officer  apolo- 
gized to  Addison  when  the  man  was  gone.  "I  give 
them  repeated  orders  to  keep  things  in  repair  but  they 
forget." 

Again  they  were  interrupted,  this  time  by  a  man  who 
entered  and  laid  two  films  on  the  captain's  desk. 
Addison  noticed  that  they  were  photographs  of  blue, 
typewritten  pages. 

"More  orders  from  Headquarters,"  said  the  com- 
mander, "if  you  will  pardon  me  " 

"Another  agent  has  confirmed  the  report  of  the  first 
and  they  are  now  certain  that  our  objective  is  the  secret 
factory  we  are  seeking,"  he  informed  Addison  when 
he  finished  reading. 

"How  do  you  make  photographs  so  quickly?"  asked 
Addison,  more  interested  in  the  process  than  the  report 
"I  was  going  to  ask  you  about  it  when  I  saw  the  one 
made  in  your  office  back  at  the  airdrome." 

"I  had  forgotten  that  you  used  to  immerse  your 
plates  in  chemical  baths  and  otherwise  go  to  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  and  then  secure  only  a  black  and  white 
result,"  the  captain  nodded. 

"We  have  two  kinds  of  films,  the  black  and  the 
white.  In  either  case  the  emulsion  is  in  the  presence 
of  a  powerful  catalytic  agent  which  makes  the  film 
'exposing  out.'  I  mean  that  when  the  film  is  exposed 
in  the  camera  the  picture  appears  instantly  and  requires 
no  development.  We  use  a  gas  which  is  a  negative 
catalytic  force  and  permanently  stops  all  action.  We 
release  this  gas  inside  the  camera  automatically  after 
the  exposure,  so  we  can  take  the  completed  picture 
out  immediately. 

"The  black  films  have  a  black  emulsion  which  turns 
lighter  upon  exposure  to  light,  the  more  intense  the 
light  the  lighter  the  result.  They  are  responsive  to 
colors  and  reproduce  them  perfectly.  Since  we  start 
with  a  black  film  and  high-lights  appear  light,  we 
obtain  a  positive.  We  print  these  on  black  paper  or 
film  to  obtain  copies  in  positive. 

"Tbs-whlfe  films  have  a  white  emulsion  that  turns 
dark  upon  exposure  to  light,  resulting  in  a  negative. 
To  obtain  positive  copies  we  print  them  on  white  paper 
or  films." 

"That  is  how  we  simplify  our  office  and  paper  work," 
he  added. 

"By  the  way,  where  are  we  now?"  asked  Addison. 
"I  should  like  to  know  how  you  calculate  your  position." 

Captain  Gauthier  read  the  local  time-clock  and  a 
chronometer  and  fed  the  data,  together  with  the  exact 
direction  of  their  course  into  a  computing  machine  from 
which  lie  took  the  answer  written  on  a  little  slip  of 
paper  similar  to  that  used  in  an  adding  machine. 

"40"  <W  52"  N— 161°  13'  59.6"  WL,"  he  read. 
"We  are  well  over  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  not  very  far 
from  our  objective." 

For  a  time  Addison  sat  watching  the  screens  above 
the  control  table.  He  marveled  at  the  number  of  ships 


that  appeared  out  of  the  night  to  be  swallowed  again 
in  the  gulf  of  darkness.  He  became  restless  and  asked 
if  be  might  explore  the  ship. 

"Certainly,"  said  the  captain,  arising  and  assisting 
Addison  to  his  precarious  balance.  "I  believe  that  it 
would  be  easier  if  I  carried  you,  since  you  are  not 
accustomed  to  walking  in  this  space  of  no  gravity. 
No,  it  will  not  appear  ludicrous  to  the  crew  for  they 
all  know  about  you  and  can  appreciate  your  difficulties. 
In  fact,  they  are  wondering  why  I  have  not  carried  you 
before.  If  you  will  take  off  your  magnetic  shoes  " 

Addison  unbuckled  his  shoes  a  little  dubiously  and 
drew  his  foot  from  one  of  them. 

"Be  careful,"  the  captain  warned.  "Hang  onto  me 
when  you  take  your  other  foot  out.  If  you  should 
exert  force  against  the  floor  you  would  overcome  the 
inertia  of  your  body's  mass  and  continue  upward  until 
you  bumped  your  head  against  the  ceiling  and  continue 
bouncing  between  the  floor  and  ceiling  until  the  tissue 
and  air  friction  stopped  you  or  until  somebody  with 
shoes  caught  you." 

Transmutation  1 

ADDISON  clung  to  his  host  and  gingerly  removed 
his  other  foot,  leaving  the  shoes  fast  to  the  floor. 
A  feeling  of  utter  helplessness  came  over  him.  He 
attempted  to  walk  but  could  gain  absolutely  no  traction 
for  there  was  no  force  to  set  up  friction  between  his 
feet  and  the  floor.  It  occurred  to  him  that  he  was  like 
a  wisp  of  smoke  to  be  wafted  hither  and  yon  as  suited 
the  fancy  of  any  air  current  that  might  stir. 

"Hang  onto  my  arm  to  steady  yourself  and  we'll  go," 
directed  the  officer. 

The  visitor  grasped  the  captain's  arm  and  held  him- 
self with  some  degree  of  success  in  an  upright  posi- 
tion, although  there  was  no  load  on  the  commander's 
arm.  When  they  started,  however,  Addison  felt  a 
slight  pull  until  he  was  under  way.  Then  the  inertia 
was  overcome  and  he  floated  along  with  no  hindrance 
to  his  host.  They  were  now  in  the  narrow  corridor 
which  ran  the  length  of  the  ship  and  Addison  tried  an 
experiment.  Twisting  on  the  supporting  arm  slightly, 
he  maneuvered  his  body  until  it  was  at  right  angles  to 
that  of  his  new  found  friend  and  again  experienced 
the  phenomenon  of  the  corridor  revolving  to  accom- 
modate his  position.  It  seemed  to  him  that  the  captain 
was  now  walking  up  the  side  of  a  tall  shaft  in  which 
Addison  hung  from  a  precarious  position.  Two  hun- 
dred fifty  feet  below  was  the  bottom  and  the  same 
distance  above  was  the  top !  He  gasped  with  dizziness 
and  then  laughed  when  the  thought  of  the  absence  of 
gravity  came  to  his  rescue. 

As  they  progressed  on  their  tour  of  inspection,  Addi- 
son was  astonished  at  the  great  amount  of  machinery, 
some  of  great  mass,  and  the  number  of  the  crew  busy 
over  the  ship.  He  shuddered  to  think  of  the  great 
splash  should  the  gravity-nullifying  equipment  fail! 

The  visitor's  curiosity  was  aroused  when  he  noticed 
a  continued  duplication  of  small  twin  apparatus  all 
about  the  shell  of  the  craft.  These  were  faced  invari- 
ably by  a  lens  of  some  five  inches  in  diameter  for  one 
part  of  the  equipment;  while  the  companion  machine 
extended  what  appeared  to  be  a  flat  tube  about  eight 
inches  wide  and  half  an  inch  thick  through  the  wall  of 
the  vessel.  The  tube  passed  through  a  ball  which  was 
set  in  a  socket  in  the  outer  wall  of  the  craft,  permitting 
the  tube  to  be  moved  about  and  still  keep  an  air-tight 
joint. 

"What  are  these?"  he  asked  his  guide. 


110 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


"That  machine  upon  which  the  lens  in  the  shell  is 
focused  is  an  anti-nullifier.  While  rays  from  it  are 
directed  upon  an  enemy  ship  it  paralyzes  the  nullifying 
forces  of  the  vessel  permitting  gravity  to  crash  it  to 
the  earth.  This  smaller  machine  is  a  molecule  dis- 
rupter. It  stops  the  activity  of  atoms  and  destroys 
their  power  of  attracting  one  another  and  maintaining 
space  between  themselves.  During  a  battle  we  cut  huge 
slices  out  of  the  enemy  craft  until  a  vital  spot  is  injured. 
Sometimes,  if  we  catch  an  enemy  ship  unaware,  we  cut 
it  completely  in  two  before  they  can  maneuver  out  of 
the  danger.  Come  down  to  the  repair  shop  and  I'll 
show  how  it  operates." 

The  captain  "carried"  Addison  to  the  elevator  in 
which  they  descended  to  the  large,  well-equipped  ma- 
chine shop. 

"This,"  said  the  officer,  indicating  a  box  some  three 
feet  square  and  one  foot  deep,  "is  the  insulator.  You 
will  notice  that  it  is  thinner  than  paper,  yet  it  weighs, 
when  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  many  tons.  It  is 
made  of  atoms  which  are  not  in  motion  and  hence 
impervious  to  the  action  of  the  disrupter  rays,  and 
protects  the  floor,  and  whatever  happens  to  be  under 
the  floor,  from  destruction." 

Captain  Gauthier  went  to  a  clamp  on  the  wall  from 
which  he  unfastened  a  small  machine  appearing  to  be 
an  old-time  electric  drill  of  the  small  portable  type. 
He  plugged  the  cord  in  a  receptacle  protruding  from 
the  floor  near  the  insulating  box  and  then  went  to  a 
scrap  box  from  which  he  selected  a  piece  of  steel  about 
a  foot  long  and  three  inches  square.  While  he  was 
gone  Addison,  clinging  to  the  box  to  keep  from  floating 
away,  examined  the  contrivance.  It  was  a  hand  tool 
with  a  flat  tube  similar  to  the  one  shown  him  just 
before  but  smaller.  Addison  noticed  that  the  opening 
was  about  the  thickness  of  paper  and  four  inches  wide. 

"This  ray,"  said  the  captain,  laying  the  bar  in  the 
box,  "is  used  for  many  purposes.  It  is  of  greatest 
value  for  cutting  any  kind  of  material  and  for  making 
elements  of  which  we  are  short.  When  the  force 
arrests  the  atomic  activity  the  cessation  of  atomic  mo- 
tion liberates  a  great  quantity  of  heat,  but  when  the 
ray  is  turned  off  the  molecules  build  up  again  and  use 
the  heat.  Since  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  some  of 
the  heat  from  escaping,  the  mass  cools  down  until  it 
has  absorbed  enough  heat  from  its  surroundings  to 
furnish  energy  for  the  complete  crystallization; 
whereupon  the  mass  gradually  warms  up  to  room 
temperature." 

The  captain  pointed  the  ray  machine  tube  at  the  bar 
and  pressed  the  trigger  in  the  handle,  sweeping  the  rays 
broadside  the  length  of  the  bar  with  one  quick  motion 
and  at  once  releasing  the  trigger.  A  blinding  glare 
and  intolerable  heat  emanated  from  the  box.  He 
dropped  a  tiny  object  into  the  terrible  furnace  and 
closed  the  lid. 

"You  see,  the  bar  is  no  more,"  he  continued  to  the 
awe-inspired  visitor.  "When  the  molecular  structure  is 
disrupted,  the  matter  loses  its  identity  and  builds  back 
up  into  most  anything.  To  control  this  rebuilding, 
we  drop  some  substance  among  the  lifeless  atoms 
around  which  they  build,  the  formation  identical  with 
that  of  the  'seed'  as  we  call  it.  In  this  case  I  dropped 
a  chip  of  diamond  into  the  presence  of  the  dead  matter 
so  the  atoms,  as  they  absorb  'latent  energy  of  molecular 
structure'  will  arrange  themselves  to  form  a  diamond. 
Should  I  leave  the  lid  open,  vast  quantities  of  air  would 
result.  In  fact,  all  the  air  that  we  are  breathing,  now 
that  we  are  so  high  that  artificial  air  is  necessary,  is. 


made  in  this  way.    In  short  it  is  our  method  of 
transmutation." 

Over  the  Enemy 

T)RESEN1LY  the  officer  opened  the  lid  and  Addison 
JL  was  astonished  to  see  that  the  once  fiery  mass  was 
covered  with  frost.  The  officer  lit  a  powerful  torch 
and  directed  the  intense  flame  into  the  box.  The  frost 
persisted  for  some  time  despite  the  applied  heat  but 
gradually  melted,  at  which  juncture  he  turned  off  the 
torch  and  picked  up  the  resultant  substance.  Addison 
was  astonished  to  see  that  it  was  a  diamond  crystal  of 
more  or  less  regular  shape  but  with  a  flat  bottom. 

"Some  of  the  atoms  combirted  to  form  air,  so  the 
mass  of  this  crystal  is  not  so  great  as  that  of  the  steel 
bar,"  the  captain  explained.  We  use  this  method  in 
the  laboratory  for  making  quantities  of  otherwise  rare  . 
elements,  and  for  many  fields  of  research.  The  lifeless 
atoms  lie  on  the  bottom  of  the  box  in  the  form  of  a 
fine,  almost  imperceptible  dust,  but  as  they  become 
active  they  gather  about  the  seed  element  and  slowly, 
as  they  crystallize,  push  the  seed  upward  and  build 
beneath  it.  We  create  any  element  or  compound, 
whether  amorphous  or  crystalline,  in  this  way.  We 
have  found  a  method  whereby  we  render  the  atoms 
permanently  dead  and  yet  hold  them  together  in  any 
form  we  wish.  It  is  of  these  lifeless  atoms  that  this 
box  is  built.  Another  instance  of  the  ray's  use:  the 
underground  laboratory  and  hangar  was  excavated 
with  this  disrupter  and  the  atoms  of  the  rock  and 
earth  gradually  turned  into  air  and  water. 

"But  we  are  nearing  our  objective  and  I  must  return 
to  the  control  room." 

Back  in  the  control  room  Addison  again  donned  his 
shoes  and  struggled  over  to  the  control  table.  He 
looked  over  the  dials  and  was  surprised  to  find  that 
they  were  now  sixty  miles  high  and  had  changed  their 
course  and  increased  their  speed.  The  local  time-clock, 
however,  was  stationary. 

"We  started  out  on  the  wrong  course  to  deceive  any 
spies  who  might  happen  to  see  us,"  the  captain  ex- 
plained. "We  have  increased  our  altitude  to  better 
conceal  our  movements  and  have  swung  toward  our 
true  objective,  which  is  99°  50*  15#"  E.  Long,  and 
27°  25'  23"  N.  Lat.,  a  point  about  five  hundred  miles 
north  of  Mandalay.  We  have  maintained  a  speed  such 
as  to  arrive  there  at  midnight.  Should  we  sight  an 
enemy  ship,  the  entire  crew  will  be  warned  by  the 
ringing  of  a  small  bell,  in  which  case  strap  yourself 
into  a  chair  or  hang  onto  something  for  support." 

Addison  was  still  thinking  of  the  demonstration  in  y 
the  machine  shop  and  shuddered  when  he  fried— to 
imagine  what  a  terrible  battle  might  ;nsue  should  they 
meet  the  enemy.  To  think  of  slicing  one  of  these  huge 
monsters  into  shavings !  Now  that  he  was  close  to  the 
control  table  and  could  see  the  screens  better  he  no- 
ticed that  each  was  divided  into  two-inch  squares  by 
fine  lines. 

"Why  the  divisions  ?"  he  asked  Lieutenant  Evenrude, 
who  still  handled  the  keyboard. 

"Firing  cross-hairs,"  he  ansered.  "When  an  enemy 
ship  is  imaged  on  any  of  the  crosses  he  is  covered  by 
one  of  the  atomic  disrupters.  The  firing  board  is 
there,"  he  indicated  another  table  which  Addison  had 
thought  was  a  duplicate  control  for  the  ship. 

The  captain  was  feeding  some  data  into  the  calcu- 
lating machine.  After  glancing  at  the  answer  he 
touched  a  button  in  response  to  which  a  man  appeared 
and  strapped  himself  into  the  chair  before  the  firing 


THE  SILENT  DESTROYER 


111 


table.  Addison  watched  this  preparation  apprehensively 
but  those  on  the  ship  continued  their  routine  duties  as 
though  nothing  had  happened.  The  captain  sat  at  his 
desk  constantly  punching  6gures  on  the  calculating  ma- 
chine and  comparing  the  answers  with  positions  on 
maps  spread  out  before  him.  Addison  grew  nervous. 
They  were  evidently  in  enemy  territory  and  all  was  in 
readiness  for  combat.  He  wondered  how  it  would  seem 
to  find  himself  plunging  toward  the  earth  in  half  of 
this  ship  of  steel. 

"We  are  over  the  territory  of  the  enemy  now,"  said 
Evenrude  without  taking  his  eyes  from  the  dials  and 
screens.  "If  you  will  strap  yourself  into  the  chair 
between  this  and  the  firing  table  you  can  see  what  is 
going  on." 

The  visitor  strapped  himself  into  the  chair  indicated 
and  found  it,  like  everything  else  in  the  craft,  securely 
fastened.  From  this  point  of  vantage  he  watched  the 
two  tables  with  their  alert  operators.  He  noticed  a 
slightly  different  color  on  the  screens  and  asked  the 
cause. 

"We  have  changed  from  infra-red  to  ultra-violet 
searchlights,  or  in  fact,  a  band  even  shorter  than  ultra- 
violet," Evenrude  said  without  turning  his  head.  "We 
hope  that  the  enemy  is  not  equipped  with  this  latest 
invention.  If  our  supposition  is  correct,  our  lights 
will  not  show  up  on  their  screens  and  thus  give  us  the 
advantage." 

CHAPTER  V 
Battle! 

AT  first  he  saw  nothing  to  indicate  a  ship,  but 
presently  he  noticed  a  spot  on  the  second  screen 
•  that  was  slightly  different  in  color  than  the  rest. 
"Number  two,  section  twelve,"  Evenrude  spoke  to 
the  gunner,  and  then  to  Addison,  "That  is  the  light  of 
their  infra-red  searchlights.  Probably  a  scout  guard- 
ing the  factory.  I'll  maneuver  to  get  the  craft  in  the 
screen  and  on  the  cross-hairs." 

As  he  watched,  Addison  saw  the  light  become 
brighter  and  more  concentrated  and  felt  a  slight  pres- 
sure this  way  and  that  as  the  ship  was  being  maneu- 
vered. Presently  the  enemy  ship,  appearing  only  half 
an  inch  long,  entered  the  screen  from  the  edge.  It 
looked  like  a  tiny  fish  with  many  searchlights  reaching 
out  and  groping  in  the  darkness.  As  Evenrude  brought 
the  ship  closer,  the  image  grew  to  an  inch  in  length. 

"Intersection  twelve-two,"  Evenrude  said  quietly  to 
the  gunner.  "Ready." 

Addison  watched  in  fascination.  Evidently  Even- 
rude had  cut  out  the  gyroscopic  control  for  his  fingers 
now  danced  over  the  keyboard  as  though  he  were  type- 
writing a  letter  in  haste.  The  image  of  the  enemy 
danced  and  bobbed  unsteadily  in  the  little  square  but 
pcrsistantly  edged  toward  the  intersection.  Suddenly 
there  was  a  blinding  glare  of  white  light  where  the 
ship  had  been.  Addison  blinked  away  the  glaring 
after-image  and  looked  again.  The  enemy  now  ap- 
peared nearer  the  center  of  the  screen,  while  at  the 
bottom  of  the  picture  he  saw  an  object  for  an  instant 
just  as  it  left  the  field  of  vision.  He  looked  closer  at 
the  ship  and  gasped.  The  nose  of  the  monster  had 
been  cut  completely  off! 

"Intersection  eleven-eight,"  said  Evenrude  as  though 
nothing  had  happened.  "We  have  them  on  the  de- 
fensive." 

The  stricken  ship  was  now  twisting  and  turning  to 
throw  off  the  aim  of  its  pursuer  and  Evenrude  found 
it  difficult  to  get  it  into  the  intersection.  For  an  instant, 


Addison  saw  it  approach  the  intersection  and  the  screen 
was  enveloped  in  another  flash  of  confusing  light. 
When  he  could  again  see  the  enemy  appeared  un- 
touched, but  it  suddenly  changed  course  and  a  huge 
shaving  from  the  top  left  the  vessel  and  continued  on 
the  original  course  for  a  moment  and  then  tipped 
downward  and  dropped  faster  and  faster  out  of  the 
field  of  view.  Addison  gasped.  They  had  cut  off  a 
slice  as  though  the  monster  were  a  carrot ! 

"Finish  him  on  nine-thirteen  intersection,"  said 
Evenrude  in  matter-of-fact  tones. 

Again  the  struggle  to  get  the  enemy  into  range 
began,  a  blinding  flare  that  covered  the  entire  screen 
made  Addison's  eyes  swim,  and  all  was  over.  When 
he  again  could  see,  he  was  astonished  to  behold  two 
objects  tumbling  end  over  end  toward  the  earth.  The 
ship  had  been  divided  through  the  center  from  prow 
to  stern! 

Addison  sat  for  a  moment  spellbound.  A  five 
hundred  foot  ship  had  been  cut  into  pieces  and  hurled 
to  earth  with  its  crew  of  two  hundred  men,  yet  the 
routine  in  the  control  room  of  the  victor  had  scarcely 
been  disturbed.  He  looked  about  again  and  saw  the 
captain  calmly  working  over  his  maps  and  the 
stenographer  voicing  the  happenings  for  the  record  in 
the  ship's  log- 

A  man  entered,  laid  several  sheets  of  red  paper  on 
the  commander's  desk  and  departed.  The  officer  read 
one  of  the  pages  and  then  gave  one  to  the  stenographer, 
one  to  the  television  operator  and  one  to  each  of  the 
men  at  the  control  and  gunner's  tables. 

"That  was  good  work,"  he  commented  and  praised 
his  men.  "We  destroyed  the  enemy  without  much 
damage  to  ourselves." 

Addison  thought  for  a  moment  and  then  the  signi- 
ficance of  the  officer's  last  remark  dawned. 

'"Without  much  damage  to  ourselves'.  You  don't 
mean  that  we  were  damaged?"  he  asked  incredulously. 

The  captain  smiled  grimly.  "We  caught  the  enemy 
unaware  but  after  the  first  attack  they  were  active. 
They  cut  a  slice  from  the  bottom  of  our  ship  near 
the  stern.  We  lost  about  two  hundred  tons  of  our 
mass,  sixteen  of  the  crew  are  gone  and  seven  wounded. 
They  cut  off  most  of  the  machine  shop  and  all  of  the 
crew's  quarters.  The  head  surgeon  in  the  hospital 
says  that  all  of  the  wounded  will  recover  but  it  will 
require  much  care  in  two  of  the  cases." 

Addison  was  aghast !  To  think  that  sixteen  of  their 
own  men  had  plunged  to  the  ground  in  a  shaving  cut 
from  the  steel  monster  beneath  his  very  feet,  and  yet 
he  had  known  nothing  of  it  until  now !  He  recovered 
from  the  horror  and  shock  of  this  news  and  was 
thoughtful  for  several  minutes. 

"Why  don't  you  insulate  your  ships  with  the  material 
used  in  the  construction  of  the  box  in  the  machine 
shop — that  'lifeless  atomic  insulation'  —  to  guard 
against  the  atomic  disrupting  apparatus  of  the  enemy?" 
he  asked  the  captain. 

"It  is  only  recently  that  we  have  discovered  the 
means  of  holding  the  dead  atoms  together,  but  our  new 
ships,  which  are  now  under  construction,  are  so  in- 
sulated. But  there  were  none  yet  in  commission  when 
we  left" 

The  captain  returned  to  his  desk  while  Evenrude  put 
the  ship  on  her  course  again. 

"We  are  almost  over  the  valley  we  are  seeking," 
said  the  lieutenant.  "I  imagine  that  they  know  of  our 
coming  and  we  may  see  some  real  action  soon.  They 
may  send  a  fleet  of  ships  after  us  or  they  may  use 


112 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


anti-nullifiers  from  the  ground.  In  either  case  we 
expect  a  difficult  time." 

"What  will  you  do  to  protect  this  ship?"  Addison 
asked.  It  seemed  hopeless  to  continue  on  the  mission 
now  that  he  had  seen  the  frightful  effect  of  the 
weapons,  and  they  were  now  reasonably  sure  that  the 
enemy  expected  them. 

"We'll  turn  on  all  of  our  disrupting  guns  and  then 
spin  on  our  longitudinal  axis.  That  will  cut  deep 
gashes  in  the  ground  for  miles  around  and  possibly 
destroy  their  defensive  equipment.  Of  course,  it  is 
a  desperate  chance  that  we  are  taking,  but  the  world 
is  in  a  desperate  condition  at  present  so  we  feel  that 
we  are  justified." 

Desperate  Moments 

ADDISON  turned  this  idea  over  in  his  mind  but 
was  interrupted  by  a  flash  of  red  light  from  the 
instrument  board  on  the  wall.  Lieutenant  Evenrude 
cut  out  the  gyroscopic  control. 

The  captain  came  over  and  stood  beside  Addison's 
chair  to  watch  the  instruments  and  give  orders. 

"Close  the  master  switch,"  he  said  calmly  to  the 
gunner.  "We  are  directly  over  the  objective,"  and  to 
Evenrude,  "Spin  I" 

Addison  clung  to  the  chair  in  desperation,  forget- 
ting that  he  was  strapped  in.  He  felt  his  body  thrown 
this  way  and  that  until  his  senses  reeled.  By  an  effort 
of  his  will  he  controlled  himself  and  looked  at  the 
calm  officers  at  the  keys  and  then  up  at  the  screens. 
First  one  and  then  another,  in  rapid  rotation,  flashed 
into  brilliant  light  1 

He  noticed  the  red  light.  Sometimes  it  was  gleam- 
ing brightly  and  again  it  went  dark,  only  to  flash  up 
again,  each  change  being  accompanied  by  a  jar  of  the 
ship. 

"What  is  the  red  light?"  he  gasped. 

"Anti-nullifier  indicator,"  said  the  captain.  "In 
other  words,  when  the  red  light  is  on  our  milliners 
are  paralyzed  and  we  are  falling." 

"Change  the  course  to  three  points  east  of  north," 
said  the  commander.  "We've  gone  beyond  our  objec- 
tive." 

Addison  watched  the  dials  on  the  wall  and  was 
horrified  to  see  the  altimeter  sink  rapidly  while  the 
red  light  was  on  but  mount  when  it  was  extinguished. 
But  they  were  losing  altitude  continually;  nearer  to 
the  earth  with  each  flash  of  red ! 

"I  had  no  idea  that  they  were  so  well  protected," 
said  the  captain  with  a  frown.  "If  we  don't  destroy 
their  antinullifiers  soon  we're  lost." 

As  they  drew  nearer  to  the  earth  the  blinding  glare 
that  flashed  successively  over  the  screens  became  so 
bright  that  Addison  was  forced  to  turn  his  swimming 
eyes  away.  He  watched  the  instruments,  and  the  wild 
spinning  of  inclinometers,  levels,  compasses,  and  others 
he  knew  nothing  of,  gave  him  an  idea  of  the  wild 
contortions  the  ship  was  going  through.  But  he  could 
feel  it,  too,  as  his  body  was  thrown  this  way  and  that. 
One  of  the  advantages  of  eating  pills  of  synthetic  food 
rather  than  the  old  time  bulky  meals,  occurred  to  him 
now. 

They  were  only  two  miles  above  the  earth's  surface 
and  Addison  had  tensed  himself  for  the  frightful  shock 
he  felt  must  surely  come,  when  the  red  flashes  from 
the  instrument  board  became  more  intermittent  and 
finally  ceased  altogether.  The  commander  gave  an 
order  and  the  flashes  on  the  screens  ceased,  the  instru- 
ments steadied  and  all  came  to  rest. 


"Put  her  in  neutral  and  we'll  hold  this  position 
until  morning,"  said  the  Captain.  "Apparently  we 
have  destroyed  their  anti-nullifiers  since  they  have 
gradually  ceased  to  function." 

Addison  leaned  back  to  gather  together  his  senses. 
As  time  passed  and  he  listened  to  the  silence  he  dozed, 
nor  did  he  realize  that  he  had  slept  until  the  captain 
spoke  to  him. 

"Do  you  wish  to  go  outside?" 

Addison  started  and  looked  questioningly  up  at  the 
grim  smile  on  the  commander's  face. 

"Do  you  wish  to  go  outside?"  he  repeated. 

"Oh,  yes,  by  all  means." 

The  sun  was  just  peering  up  over  the  mountains 
to  the  east  when  Allison  stepped  from  the  ladder  to 
view  the  landscape.  And  what  a  landscape! 

As  though  some  giant  had  gone  over  the  mountains 
and  valleys  with  a  huge  plow,  cutting  bottomless  fur- 
rows promiscuously  in  every  direction  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  reach,  the  territory  was  a  riot  of  frightful 
destruction  I 

Addison  gasped  in  horror.  He  stared  at  the  captain 
with  blank  amazement. 

"This  treatment  is  meant  to  be  a  trifle  disconcerting 
to  the  enemy,"  the  officer  smiled.  "It  is  only  the 
second  time  in  history  that  any  battle-ship  has  torn  up 
the  ground  in  this  fashion.  In  fact,  we  are  not  per- 
mitted to  do  it  except  under  exceptional  circumstances. 
But  go  over  and  look  into  one  of  the  furrows." 

Although  the  captain  knew  what  to  expect,  the  other 
members  of  the  crew  had  never  seen  such  havoc  and 
crowded  along  the  crevice  into  which  Addison  was 
staring.  They  could  not  see  the  bottom  of  the  cut, 
but  were  intensely  interested  in  the  sides.  When  the 
atoms  had  taken  up  energy  to  again  form  molecules, 
they  had  crystallized  into  fantastic  shapes  of  metal  and 
quartz  that  glistened  and  sparkled  in  the  sunlight  as 
though  striving  to  atone  for  the  frightful  wounds. 
They  explored  farther  down  the  canyon,  jumping  over 
the  two  foot  gashes.  They  found  the  bodies  of  several 
unfortunate  Orientals  who  had  been  caught  in  the 
flaming  destruction,  and  around  a  turn,  two  fighting 
vessels  similar  to  their  own.  Addison  traced  the  fur- 
rows down  the  mountain  side,  through  the  ships  and 
up  the  other  side  of  the  canyon — nothing  escaped.  The 
ships  had  been  cut  this  way  and  that  into  many  sec- 
tions, the  edges  of  the  incisions,  as  always,  fringed 
with  glittering  crystals. 

An  Old-Fashioned  Weapon 

SUDDENLY  the  captain  stopped.  Beyond  the  ships, 
the  canyon  floor  widened  to  about  a  thousand  feet 
and  here,  as  though  the  fateful  plow  had  struck  a  huge 
flat  rock  and  slid  harmlessly  over.  The  ground  was 
untouched. 

"All  hands  aboard  the  ship,"  he  ordered  quietly. 
"Battle  stations." 

Addison  was  about  to  inquire  as  to  the  cause  of 
this  sudden  order  when  another  quiet  voice  broke  the 
grim  stillness. 

"All  hands  in  the  air." 

The  hands  of  the  Occidental  crew  instantly  reached 
upward  and  the  visitor  turned  to  see  who  had  taken 
charge  of  the  situation.  He  turned  cold  and  froze 
in  his  tracks !  With  some  twenty-five  men  at  his  back, 
each  armed  as  was  he,  stood  a  man  with  a  small 
molecule  disrupter  leveled  at  the  exploring  party! 

"Search  them,"  ordered  the  stranger. 

While  the  leader  kept  the  first  group  covered  with 


THE  SILENT  DESTROYER 


113 


the  deadly  disrupter  the  prisoners  filed,  one  at  a  time, 
between  guards  who  quickly  searched  them  and  passed 
them  to  a  new  and  growing  group.  It  reminded 
Addison  of  the  fateful  trickle  of  sand  through  the 
neck  of  an  hourglass.  Several  of  the  officers  had 
carried  small  pocket  disrupters  and  were  quickly  dis- 
armed by  the  silent  guards.  Addison  underwent  the 
search  with  apprehension.  The  guards  took  from  his 
pocket  a  heavy  black  object  and  examined  it  curiously 
but  returned  it  to  him — he  carried  no  disrupter.  He 
edged  over  to  Captain  Gauthier  and  bent  close  to  him. 

"Be  ready  when  I  make  a  move,"  he  breathed. 

The  captives  had  all  been  searched  and  the  leader 
of  the  enemy  walked  up  to  Captain  Gauthier. 

"We  expected  a  move  of  this  kind,  so  insulated  our 
shops  and  hangars.  You  certainly  changed  the  map, 
but  we  captured  you  and  your  ship.  Thanks  for  the 
ship,"  he  said  with  a  quiet  smile.  "We  figured  that 
if  we  turned  off  our  anti-nullifiers  one  at  a  time  you 
would  think  that  you  had  destroyed  them — and  the 
trap  worked." 

"You  win  for  the  time  being,  Ghorski,"  the  captain 
said  slowly.  "What  are  you  going  to  do  with  us?" 

"We'll  question  your  men  and  then  make  all  of 
you  immortal.  We  haven't  decided  what  to  transmute 
you  into  but  have  been  thinking  of  a  huge  gold  nugget 
for  the  museum  at  Singapore." 

Addison,  who  had  looked  upon  Ghorski  as  a  rather 
pleasant  person,  shuddered,  and  any  hesitancy  he  had 
felt  gave  way  to  desperation.  Quickly  he  drew  the 
heavy  black  object  that  the  searchers  had  scorned  and 
pointed  it  at  the  traitor's  right  shoulder.  There  was 
a  flash  of  fire  and  a  report  that  blasted  the  stillness  to 


atoms.  Mountain  peaks  barked  savagely  at  one  an- 
other, while  the  two  groups  of  quiet-loving  men  stood 
rooted  to  the  ground  in  horror  that  their  sensitive  ears 
should  be  thus  tortured.  A  queer  look  of  mingled 
pain  and  astonishment  spread  over  Ghorski's  face  and 
he  clutched  at  his  shoulder.  His  right  hand  hung  limp 
and  the  disrupter  slid  from  his  numb  fingers.  Captain 
Gauthier,  startled  as  he  was,  recovered  himself  and 
seized  the  disrupter  from  the  traitor's  stiffened  hand. 
It  was  a  tense  moment  and  Gauthier  was  equal  to  it. 

Addison  turned  his  head  away,  and  well  that  he  did. 
A  blinding  flash  that  left  the  sunlight  pale  and  sickly 
by  comparison  lit  the  canyon  for  an  instant.  A  wave 
of  frightful  heat  like  the  breath  of  an  angry  furnace 
rushed  by,  scorching  his  clothes  and  singeing  his  hair. 
Slowly  and  apprehensively  he  turned  and  there,  not 
twenty-six  men  but  fifty-two  pieces  of  men  lay  in 
grotesque  huddles  on  the  ground,  frozen  solid. 

"Alright,"  said  the  captain  quietly,  feeling  his  numb, 
outraged  ears,  "well  go  down  and  destroy  their 
laboratory  and  hangars.  I  am  sure  that  the  Orientals 
will  be  ready  to  listen  to  reason  now.  But  how  did  you 
make  that  frightful  racket?" 

"I  shot  with  a  Colt  45  automatic,"  said  Allison 
simply,  handing  the  heavy  weapon  to  the  captain  who 
examined  it  curiously. 

"Seems  to  me  that  I  saw  one  of  these  in  the  Museum 
of  Antiquity  at  Chicago  but  I  didn't  pay  much  atten- 
tion to  it.  How  did  you  happen  to  bring  such  an  old 
fashioned  contrivance  along?" 

"I  had  no  idea  of  what  conditions  I  might  encounter 
on  this  plane  so  brought  it  along  as  a  precautionary 
measure,"  Addison  smiled,  sliding  the  gun  back  into 
his  pocket. 


The  End 


B 


NEXT  MONTH 

EGINNING  with  our  September  issue,  we  are  inaugurating  a  new  department  in  this  maga- 
zine entitled: 


"AVIATION  FORUM" 


In  this  department,  we  shall  endeavor  to  answer  any  and  all  questions,  not  only  of  technical, 
but  general  aviation  interest.  Ask  us  any  questions  about  aeronautics  or  aviation  that  comes  to 
your  mind.  Those  of  interest  to  our  readers  will  be  published  in  the  "Aviation  Forum"  depart- 
ment every  month. 

Our  staff  of  aviation  experts  will  give  authoritative  answers  to  your  questions.  There  is  no 
charge  for  this  service. 


Address  all  questions  to  "Aviation  Forum,"  c/o  Air  Wonder  Stories,  96-98  Park  Place,  New 
York. 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


115 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Leviathan 

was  an  exceptionally  quiet  afternoon  ia 
Denver,  the  sky  was  devoid  of  the  usual 
swarms  of  private  aircraft.  Ordinarily 
these  should  be  many  afolt,  transporting 
their  owners,  with  bird-like  grace  and 
leisure,  along  their  varied  pleasure  and  business  pur- 
suits. But  the  absence  of  these  swarms  on  this  day  was 
perplexing,  at  least  to  one  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
watching  the  various  types  of  craft  darting  hither  and 
yon  along  the  ordinary  airlanes  above  Denver,  the  hub' 
city  of  western  aero  travel. 

On  an  ordinary  day  one  would  have  seen  a  constant 
stream  of  trim-looking,  graceful  and  swift  craft  of 
various  types  and  proportions,  forming  a  perfect  cross 
as  they  sped  along  the  governmental  lanes  to  and  from 
Los  Angeles,  Chicago  and  New  York;  or  El  Paso, 
Vancouver  and  Alaska. 

Intently  I  scanned  the  air.  I  was  standing  at  the 
time  at  my  huge,  specially  built-in  exposure  on  the 
eastern  side  of  my  hotel-apartment  on  the  hundred  and 
ninetieth  floor  of  the  new  Orville  Wright  Aero  Hotel 
and  Terminal  Building  which  had  recently  been  erected 
in  the  memory  of  the  early  pioneer  of  aviation.  It  was 
my  favorite  spot,  and  I  leaned  lazily  against  the  massive 
frame  of  the  big  window,  while  studying  the  oddly 
vacant  sky  in  front  of  me.  For  miles  and  miles  I 
could  see  over  the  rolling  western  plains.  Far  to  the 
south  I  could  see  the  white  streak  of  the  Great 
American  Desert  looming  oddly  against  a  background 
of  solid  green.  Occasionally  I  could  catch  a  glimpse  of 
the  Colorado,  a  silver  thread,  winding  its  way  snake- 
like through  a  maze  of  mountains ;  and  when  the  atmos- 
phere was  just  right  it  was  possible  for  me  to  see 
even  the  great  inland  sea  formed  by  the  reconstructed 
Boulder  Dam. 

Here  and  there  were  speeding  craft  which,  by  look- 
ing at  my  radio-controlled  chronometer  timepiece,  I 
accepted  as  being  the  usual  hourly  planes  bringing  in 
the  mail  from  outlying  points  off  die  lanes  of  ordinary 
travel.  Needless  for  me  to  say,  as  early  as  1950,  the 
government  had  laid  oat  a  system  of  airways  trans- 
versing  the  entire  United  States  with  direct  lanes  for 
air  travel.  This  afforded  the  necessary  protection  to 
the  countless  planes  that  ordinarily  should  be  soaring 
over  Denver,  and  allowed  . 
them  to  avoid  the  treach- 
erous atmospheres  that 
made  air  travel  over  cer- 
tain portions  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  indeed 
dangerous.  Only  govern- 
ment planes  were  allowed 
to  stray  off  the  estab- 
lished lanes  —  the  pri- 
vate craft  being  forced 
to  observe  the  law  rig- 
idly. Moreover,  privately 
owned  planes  were  for- 
bidden to  rise  above  the 


EARL  REPP 


25,000  foot  level,  thus 
keeping  them  well  below 
the  upper  levels  of  com- 
mercial travel.  Planes 
violating  the  legislation, 
put  into  effect  in  1975, 
were  immediately 


HCHP  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to 
rV  our  readers,  Mr.  Ed  Earl  Repp,  our  new 
author,  whom  we  consider  one  o/  the  most 
promising  science-aviation  fiction  writers  of  the 
day. 

In  his  initial  story,  the  author  introduces  so 
many  new  instrumentalities  of  science  as  applied 
to  aviation,  that  it  fairly  takes  your  breath 
away.  Slopes  of  aviation  of  the  future  are 
always  intensely  interesting,  because  they  bring 
to  our  vision  in  the  most  thrilling  way,  pictures 
of  strange  ways  of  conquering  distance.  And 
if  the  story  is  as  good  as  the  present  one,  it 
makes  not  only  interesting  reading  but  gives 
one  a  prophetic  insight  as  well. 

While  some  of  the  things  mentioned  in  this 
story  may  sound  improbable  to-day,  there  is  no 
denying  that  they  may  become  commonplace 
long  before  the  period  mentioned  in  this  story 
will  have  been  reached. 


brought  to  earth, 
their  screws  made 
dead  and  cylinders 
locked  by  a  power- 
ful system  of  radio- 
active forces  broad- 
casted by  the  gov- 
ernment observa- 
tion and  policing 
stations.  The  cul- 
prit piloting  the  of- 
fending craft  was 
dealt  with  immedi- 
ately and  severely 
in  accordance  with 
the  statutory  pro- 
visions for  such  of- 
fenders. There  was 
no  place  in  the  air 
for  those  who  for 
sheer  love  of  adventure  endangered  the  serene  souls 
traveling  in  the  majestic  air-liners  in  the  higher  levels. 

Presently  ray  eyes  roved  to  the  east  Through  the 
pale  haze,  that  hangs  like  a  ghosdy  curtain  from  the 
sky,  over  the  country  some  miles  east  of  Denver,  I 
caught  sight  of  a  tiny  speck  that  grew  gradually  in  size 
until  it  loomed  majestically  and  awesomely  in  the  air 
like  some  terrestrial  spectre.  I  was  surprised  to  see 
that  it  was  a  gigantic  air-cruiser  and  traveling  at  a 
terrific  speed  in  a  lane  high  above  the  usual  level  for 
ordinary  commercial  flight. 

I  watched  the  advancing  leviathan  of  the  air  with 
growing  interest  as  it  sped  like  an  arrow  straight  to- 
ward the  hotel.  Even  at  its  distance  of  more  than  a 
score  of  miles  I  could  see  that  its  geometrically  shaped 
nose  was  colored  with  the  traditional  insignia  of  the 
United  States  Ah-  Forces.  The  craft  was  the  first  of 
its  kind  to  have  ever  cruised  in  the  direction  of  Denver 
and  suddenly  I  remembered  having  seen  it  under  con- 
struction through  the  screen  of  my  super-sensitive  42 
power  television  receiver.  I  was  awed  at  the  tremen- 
dous speed  of  the  leviathan  and  intently  watched  its 
advance  toward  the  great  landing  atop  the  Wright 
Aero  Hotel.  In  a  few  seconds  it  shot  to  within  three 
miles  of  my  building  and  allowed  me  a  chance  to  take 
in  the  graceful  stream  lines,  rear  aileron  laterals  and 
a  rigid  stabilizing  fin  rising  from  the  rounded  top 
surface  of  the  crafts 
long,  narrow  cylindrical 
body.  Unlike  other  mod- 
ern craft,  the  leviathan 
displayed  not  a  single 
screw!  She  seemed  to- 
tally absent  of  propellers 
and  I  studied  her  under- 
surface  for  a  glimpse  of 
her  propulsion  principles. 

As  the  craft  came 
closer,  I  noticed  a  dozen 
or  more  streaks  of  pale 
blue  fire  trailing.  With 
a  hissing  sound  that  grew 
to  a  roar  as  the  ship 
neared  the  landing,  the 
streaks  of  fire  slowly  dis- 
appeared in  a  wraith  of 
pale  vapor.  Suddenly  the 
nose  of  the  craft  dipped 
downward,  and  just  as 


116 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


suddenly,  the  blue  streaks  vomiting  from  underneath 
her  rear  aileron  laterals  and  elevating  aerofoils,  van- 
ished. From  out  of  horizontal  chambers  constructed 
along  the  sides  of  the  craft's  body  just  below  a  long 
line  of  cabin  windows,  there  appeared  gradually,  two 
wide  stabilizing  aerofoils,  spreading  like  the  wings  of 
an  eagle,  tint  floated  the  ship  to  a  graceful  landing.  I 
expected  to  feel  a  tremendous  quake  surge  through 
the  building  as  the  craft  landed,  but  there  was  not  toe 
slightest  quiver. 

A  Pleasant  Meeting 

INTERESTED  in  this  new  type  of  ship,  I  dashed 
out  of  my  apartment  and  in  a  minute  I  was  stand- 
ing on  the  landing  beside  it.  Over  the  nose  of  the 
ship  I  noticed  for  the  first  time  the  controlling  com- 
partment enclosed  entirely  behind  thick,  transparently 
rigid  asbestos  gelatin,  the  new  form  of  glass  that  I 
had  read  could  withstand  the  terrific  heat  caused  by 
the  great  friction  through  the  atmosphere.  This  great 
craft  I  thought  certainly  needed  that  protection! 
Hadn't  it  come  into  view  and  landed  from  a  distance 
of  probably  more  than  twenty-five  miles  in  the  space 
of  a  minute?  I  doubted,  as  I  scanned  the  ship  admir- 
ingly, that  twenty-five  miles  per  minute  was  all  this 
great  air-cruiser  was  capable  of  doing  I 

As  I  strode  along  the  ship  toward  the  narrowing 
tail,  my  nostrils  dilated  under  a  force  of  some  strange 
gaseous  substance.  A  thin  wisp  of  vapor  seemed  to  be 
issuing  from  a  spot  underneath  the  aileron  laterals. 
Fourteen  tubes  in  all  protruded  from  under  the 

laterals  in  a  diamond  shape  formation.  They  were 

thick  and  powerful-looking  and  glowed  with  a  peculiar 
blue  luminosity  that,  even  at  the  distance  where  I  stood, 
seemed  to  burn  my  skin  sharply.  Truly,  there  were 
the  vents  from  which  issued  the  propulsion  explosions ! 
Internal  combustion  engines  with  outlet  manifolds  ex- 
tending to  the  tubes  under  the  laterals,  with  the  centri- 
fugal force  of  a  rocket,  gave  this  great  ship  its 
astounding  soeed. 

True,  the  combustion  of  gaseous  substances  to  cause 
the  "rocket"  propulsion  force  was  not  entirely  new. 
It  had  been  evolved  in  1927  by  a  German,  and  utilized 
for  the  first  time  to  propel  an  old  time  racing  car.  I 
remembered  seeing  the  historic  machine  in  the  Inter- 
national Museum  for  Mechanical  and  Scientific  Expan- 
sion over  in  New  York.  But  what  I  saw  now  was 
truly  a  great  piece  of  work,  the  result,  no  doubt  of 
years  and  years  of  steady  research  and  experi- 
mentation. What  really  awed  me  was  the  absolute 
secrecy  that  the  government  used  in  preparing  this 
leviathan  of  the  air  for  service.  Now,  it  was  doubt- 
lessly upon  its  maiden  voyage  or  trial  cruise  out  of 
the  big  station  at  Kitty  Hawk.  Now  the  world  was 
going  to  really  learn  something  about  modern  aviation ! 
In  comparison  with  this  tremendous  craft,  our  com- 
mercial ships  seemed  like  mere  pigmies  in  both  longitu- 
dinal surface  and  velocity.  This  craft,  I  speculated, 
would  be  capable  of  outdistancing  with  little  effort, 
even  the  fastest  of  our  tiny  sport  model  racing  planes 
of  the  humming  bird  principle. 

I  was  studying  intently  the  under-carriage  of  the 
great  ship,  lost  in  absorbing  the  construction  of  the 
unusual  claw-like  grips,  which,  tightly  clamped,  ap- 
parently by  suction,  to  the  floor  of  the  landing,  held 
the  ship  firmly.  Suddenly  I  felt  a  hand  touch  my 
shoulder.   I  jumped  nervously. 

'"Come  on,  Mr.  Holdon  and  I'll  show  you  something 
worth  looking  at!"  I  heard  a  laughing  voice.    I  was 


surprised  at  the  mention  of  my  name  for  I  had  kept 
close  to  my  apartment  and  my  amusing  television  since 
I  had  left  New  York  for  a  summer  vacation  in  Denver. 
I  turned  and  found  myself  staring  into  the  bright 
young  face  of  Lieutenant  Bob  Allison,  son  of  my  life- 
long friend  and  benefactor,  Senator  Allison. 

"Bob!"  I  cried  happily,  for  I  was  very  glad  to  see 
the  smiling  features  before  me.  "What— —how  on 
earth  —  what  are  you  doing  here?  Your  dad  talked 
with  me  only  this  morning  and  he  told  me  that  you 
were  stationed  at  Kitty  Hawk.  Of  course  he  must 
have  been  mistaken  for  you  couldn't  be  two  places  at 
once.  Tell  me  about  yourself,  Bob.  What  do  you 
think  of  this  contraption  of  the  United  States  Air 
Forces?   Quite  a  ship,  eh?" 

"You  bet,  Mr.  Holdon !"  he  replied  eagerly.  "She's 
a  real  boat  Dad  was  right  too,  for  I  am  stationed  at 
Kitty  Hawk.  I  left  there  just  exactly  an  hour  and 
twenty  minutes  ago  and  here  I  am  at  Denver." 

"You— y-o-u  what?"  I  stared  at  him  incredulously. 

"Why  sure,  Mr.  Holdon,  I  left  Kitty  Hawk  at  2:20 

this  afternoon  in  this  ship,  the  U.  S.  A.  F. 

Annihilator,  and  it  is  just  3 :4S  now.  Surprised,  aren't 
you  ?  You  ought  to  be,  riding  around  in  old  tubs  that 
can't  do  better  than  550  miles  per  hour.  Why,  Mr. 
Holdon,  this  craft  here  can  do  sixteen  hundred  miles 
per  hour  without  effort.  Imagine  Colonel  Lindbergh 
doing  the  Atlantic  in  36  hours  in  1926 !  I  don't  envy 
him  that  flight  after  a  cruise  in  the  Annihilatorl" 

I  laughed  softly  at  his  references  to  dear  old  Lindy 
who  had  performed  such  a  wonderful  feat  in  the  old 
days.  But  of  a  certainty,  our  heroes  of  to-day  were 
gaining  new  glories  almost  daily.  Take  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Brockenridge,  for  instance.  He  succeeded 
several  years  ago  in  an  attempt  to  fly  around  the  entire 
globe  without  a  single  stop  and  when  he  reached  the 
starting  point  his  plane  was  functioning  with  such  per- 
fectness  that  he  continued  around  a  second  time.  That 
was  a  wonderful  feat  for  the  advancement  of  aviation 
but  of  course  it  did  not  hold  the  dangers  that  con- 
fronted Lindbergh,  considering  the  development  of  air- 
craft since  his  historical  flight  in  "The  Spirit  of  St. 
Louis." 

"My  lord,  Bob,  you  young  bloods  will  get  yourselves 
killed  yet!"  I  groaned,  holding  his  steady  hand  in  my 
nervous  grip.  "Why  all  the  secrecy  about  this  wonder- 
ful AnnihUaforf  It  will  revolutionize  all  aviation  I" 

"Well,  you  see,  Mr.  Holdon,  the  government  docs 
not  want  to  be  caught  again  unprepared  as  it  was  fifty 
years  ago  when  the  Eastern  Powers  swooped  down  on 
us.  With  this  ship  and  five  thousand  others  like  it 
we  have  the  supremacy  of  the  air  at  last.  By  that 
supremacy  we  can  force  the  entire  world  to  maintain 
perfect  harmony  in  peace  and  no  more  will  they  attempt 
to  add  rich  old  Uncle  Samuel  to  their  long  lists  of 
conquests.  To  gain  superiority  over  anything  absolute 
secrecy  must  be  practiced.  Of  course,  the  government 
gave  the  public  an  insight  into  the  construction  of  the 
craft,  but  so  far  as  mechanical  principles  are  concerned, 
only  a  few  have  been  thus  far  permitted  to  know  them. 
I  don't  think  it  will  revolutionize  the  aviation  industry 
to  any  great  extent,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  govern- 
ment will  not  permit  ships  of  this  type  to  be  con- 
structed for  public  use.  At  least  not  for  the  present." 

Something  About  Joan 

««  A  ND  you  came  here  in  the  AnnikUator,  Bob?  I'll 
A  bet  your  father  will  have  a  fit  at  you  taking 
such  chances."  I  said. 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


117 


"No,  Mr.  Holdon,  he  won't"  the  young  man  smiled. 
"Confidentially,  he  is  responsible  for  me  being  one  of 
its  commanding  pilots.  He  saw  to  it  that  I  received 
a  commission  on  board  the  Annikilalor.  But,  believe 
me,  I  bad  to  work  for  it!" 

"Certainly  you  did,  Bob !  I  know  you  well.  You 
are  like  your  father  in  many  ways.  He  wouldn't 
accept  anything  unless  he  was  absolutely  certain  that 
he  had  earned  it.  Robert,  your  father  is  one  of  the 
finest  men  in  this  country  and  you  should  be  proud 
of  him!" 

"Thank  you,  Mr.  Holdon.  I'm  sure  that  the  feeling 
is  mutual  all  around.  Naturally  I'm  proud  of  dad. 
He's  the  best  fellow,  and  the  finest  friend  I've  ever 
had.  But  speaking  of  friends,  Mr.  Holdon,  where's 
Joan?" 

"Joan?  Oh,  you  mean  that  death-defying  young 
sprout  of  miner  Well,  Robert,  my  boy,  that  girl  is 
going  to  mean  the  end  of  me  yet !  I  can't  keep  her 
out  of  the  air.  She  left  this  morning  for  Los  Angeles, 
to  go  bathing.  Said  she'd  be  back  about  mid-afternoon. 
I'll  have  to  tame  that  young  lady,  Bob!" 

Young  Allison  laughed  delightedly,  his  even  white 
teeth  bleaming  softly.  His  trim,  slightly  upcurled 
mustache  that  was  the  fad  among  the  smarter  young 
officers  of  the  day,  did  not  add  much  to  his  handsome 
face.  Bob  Allison  would  have  been  handsome  even 
under  a  six  months'  growth  of  whiskers. 

"Tame  her,  Mr.  Holdon?  Do  you  think  you  could 
do  it  after  all  these  years?  She  always  was  as  wild  as 
any  of  the  youngsters  in  our  set.  You  know  I  haven't 
seen  Joan  in  ten  years?  She  was  at  school  in  Warsaw 
when  I  entered  the  Government  Academy  of  Aviation 
at  New  Orleans.  Does  she  still  have  that  funny  little 
nose  that  the  youngsters  used  to  kid  her  about?" 

"That's  right.  Bob,  it  must  be  ten  years  since  you 
saw  her,  at  that!  Joan  was  an  odd  youngster  and  that 
upturned  nose  was  the  main  source  of  her  worry.  I'll 
bet  she  licked  all  the  kids  in  Washington  over  it,  but 
wait  until  you  see  Joan  as  she  is  now.  Why  Bob  she's 
as  ugly  as  a  greasy  accelerator !" 

I  squinted  at  the  Lieutenant  to  see  how  he  accepted 
my  teasing  word-picture  of  my  untameablc  daughter. 
I  expected  to  see  his  face  cloud  but  he  continued 
smiling  pleasantly. 

"Joan  couldn't  be  as  ugly  as  all  that,  Mr.  Holdon. 
I  might  say  frankly  that  I  believe  you're  having  some 
fun  at  my  expense.  Go  right  ahead  and  have  it  be- 
cause it  does  not  alter  my  brain-picture  of  Joan.  I've 
always  admired  her  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  used 
to  think  that  I  was  put  on  this  earth  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  making  fun  of  her  nose." 

I  whistled  softly. 

"Don't  tell  me  you're  in  love  with  a  girl  you  haven't 
seen  in  ten  years,  Bob!" 

His  face  colored  under  the  taunt.  He  stared  down 
at  his  neat-fitting  boots. 

"Wel-1-1,  Mr.  Holdon,  I  don't  just  know  whether 
I  am  or  not  I've  always  admired  Joan.  I  thought 
her  little  nose  was  cute" 

"No,  my  boy,  Joan  no  longer  has  that  nose.  Nature 
took  its  course  and  developed  a  nose  that  would  cause 
the  Statue  of  Liberty  to  hang  her  head  in  shame.  Joan 
is  as  good  to  look  at  as  she  is  wild  and  fearless,  Bob. 

It'll  take  a  good  man  a  damn  good  man  to  tame 

that  youngster!  If  you  can  do  it,  you  have  my 
blessing !" 

Bob's  face  brightened  perceptibly  and  his  steel  blue 
eyes  snapped  eagerly.  He  gave  my  hand  an  apprecia- 


tive squeeze  and  grinned  bashfully.  I  scanned  the 
western  skies  searching  for  a  glimpse  of  Joan's  trim 
little  areospeedster  with  its  brilliant  red  and  orchid 
color-scheme.  The  air  was  queerly  vacant  except  for 
commercial  planes. 

"Darn  funny.  Bob,"  I  remarked  uneasily,  "that  on 
a  day  like  this  there  are  so  few  planes  in  the  air! 
What  do  you  think  is  keeping  the  swarms  in  their 
hangars  ?" 

"Why,  Mr.  Holdon,  didn't  you  get  the  government 
bulletin  over  the  television  requesting  pleasure  ships 
to  remain  out  of  the  air  to-day?" 

"No,  I  didn't!"  I  said,  surprised. 

"Well  that's  the  reason  why  the  sky  seems  so  de- 
serted. The  government  broadcast  a  bulletin  this 
morning  requesting  that  all  air  travel  with  the  excep- 
tion of  necessary  flight,  be  suspended  for  twelve  hours. 
That  was  a  protective  measure  to  give  the  AnnihUator 
right  of  way  from  Kitty  Hawk  to  points  west." 

"So  that's  it,  eh?  And  that  Joan  had  to  take-off  in 
the  face  of  a  government  order  prohibiting  it !  I  must 
have  fell  asleep  after  she  left  this  morning.  Bob,  and 
failed  to  hear  the  gong  on  my  television  receiver.  If 
I  had  known,  you  bet  Joan  would  not  have  bopped 
off." 

Joan  Arrives 

"/~\H  well,  you  needn't  be  alarmed  over  that.  She's 
\J  in  no  danger  of  crossing  our  combustion  ex- 
hausts because  we  are  not  going  farther  west  than 
Denver.  When  we  take  to  the  air  this  evening  we 
cut  a  straight  line  across  the  Divide  for  New  York 
to  map  a  new  route  for  official  aircraft." 

"I'm  a  little  bit  worried  about  Joan — in  fact,  Bob, 
I'm  always  worried  about  the  little  rapscallion!  Here 
it  is  four  o'clock !  She  should  have  been  back  by  now." 

"Leave  her  alone  and  she'll  come  home,  dragging 
her  little  plane  behind  her!"  laughed  Bob.  "I'd  like 
to  see  her  before  we  take  off,  though.  We  hop  off  at 
seven." 

"I  suppose  Joan  would  like  to  have  a  look  at  the 
AnnihUator,  Bob,"  I  teased  him.  "I'm  not  so  sure 
about  its  officers.  She  might  not  care  to  see  any  of 
them,  especially  one  who  used  to  tease  her  about  her 
nose." 

"You  don't  think  then  that  she'd  be  glad  to  see  me, 
Mr.  Holdon?  Then  you  and  I  will  look  over  the 
AnnihUator." 

"Oh  come  on,  my  boy,  don't  take  it  so  hard,"  I 
said,  "She'll  be  tickled  to  death  to  see  you !  Well  wait 
for  her.  I  know  she'll  enjoy  it.  Don't  worry  about 
me.  IH  trail  along  with  my  eyes  closed.  Let's  go 
down  to  ray  apartment,  perhaps  I  can  find  out  where 
Joan  is  at  this  time.  She  has  a  small  aero-television 
system  on  her  plane.  By  the  way,  what  brought  the 
Anniliitator  to  Denver  when  it  could  have  flow  ' 
El  Paso  or  some  other  city?" 
_  Lieutenant  Bob  Allison  blushed  profusely  and  turned 
his  head  skyward. 

"Well  now,  Mr.  Holdon,  I  really  don't  like  to  say. 
I'm  not  the  ship's  commander  you  know.  I'm  just  a 
pilot.  But  if  you  really  want  to  know,  I'm  not  too 
bashful  to  tell  you  confidentially.  Dad  thought  it 
would  be  a  good  idea  if  I  came  out  here  to  Denver  to 
renew  old  acquaintances.  Denver  was  as  good  as  any 
other  destination  to  the  War  Department.  Dad  ar- 
ranged that  too.  And  I  wanted  to  see  Joan.  There 
you  have  it  all  in  a  grease-cup.  The  Anniliilator 
cruised  out  here  for  my  personal  benefit,  but  nobody 
knows  it." 


118 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


"Well  I'll  be  damned!"  I  expostulated,  "You  young 
bloods  seem  to  have  control  of  everything.  Why  in 
my  day  " 

Suddenly  a  blood-curdling  shriek  sounded  overhead 
like  the  wail  of  a  tropical  tornado.  I  looked  up,  won- 
dering what  sort  of  a  craft  was  demanding  the  right 
of  way  to  land  on  top  of  the  Wright  Aero  Hotel. 
Swooping  in  graceful  circles  at  a  terrific  speed,  Joan's 
trim  little  aerospeedster,  with  its  tiny,  transparent 
aerofoils,  whined  above  with  muffled  twin-screws  in 
preparation  for  a  drop  landing.  The  tiny  ship, 
glistened  under  the  glare  of  the  sun,  zoomed  upward 
in  three  daring  half-cockle  turns  to  slow  its  speed. 

We  watched  it  breathlessly. 

"That's  Joan,  my  boy!"  I  said  proudly,  nudging 
Bob.  "She's  certainly  in  a  hair-raising  mood  today." 

"She  can  handle  that  mosquito  alright,  Mr.  Holdon," 
Bob  Allison  said,  admiringly.  "She's  got  plenty  of 
landing  space.  She  must  be  getting  a  bird's-eye  view 
of  the  Annihilator.  Here  she  comes !" 

Instantly  Joan's  tiny  plane  stopped  dead  above  the 
landing,  the  twin-screws  on  each  of  its  two  small, 
gyroscopic  motors,  rigid  and  still.  Over  the  enclosed 
cockpit  rose  a  series  of  small,  whirling  blades  that 
held  the  aerospeedster  in  the  air  with  the  ease  of  a 
humming  bird.  Gradually  the  whirling  heliocoptic 
screw  slowed  down  as  the  speedster  settled  toward  the 
landing.  It  came  to  a  gentle  standstill  between  the 
leviathan  Annihilator  and  a  huge  trans-continental  air- 
liner with  a  few  scant  inches  to  spare  on  either  side 
of  her  tiny  ship.  She  looked  like  a  tick  nestling  under 
the  belly  of  a  wolf-hound.  Immediately  she  stepped 
out  of  the  cockpit,  a  vari-hued  dressing  robe  around 
her  slender  form  and  a  tight-fitting  helmet  covering 
her  head,  and  there  arose  a  great  applause  from  the 
crowds  of  officers  and  civilians  grouped  around  the 
Annihilator. 

True  to  the  traditions  of  eternal  femininity,  Joan 
accepted  the  plaudits  joyously  as  though  she  expected 
men  to  slap  their  hands  together  in  appreciation  of  her 
flying  ability  if  not  the  exciting  warmth  of  her  beauty. 
As  she  walked  blithely  toward  the  elevators  which 
would  carry  us  down  to  our  apartment  floor,  she  waved 
at  an  occasional  acquaintance  or  spoke  to  a  casual 
friend.  She  seemed  to  show  little  interest  in  the  huge 
leviathan  of  the  air  although  I  could  see,  as  she  neared 
us,  that  she  was  bubbling  over  with  excitement. 

"Joan!"  I  called,  with  my  usual  severity  that  ex- 
pressed more  of  a  habit  than  actual  wrath.  "What 
do  you  mean  by  stunting  like  that  over  the  airdrome? 
Don't  you  know  that  I  have  to  pay  your  fines  every- 
time  you  get  caught  performing  like  an  idiot?  Where 
on  earth  did  you  get  that  crazy  siren?  Come  here, 
dear !" 

"Come  along,  daddy,  be  a  good  sport.  Gosh!  The 
siren?  You  mean  my  new  Right-of-Way  whistle!  I 
bought  it  over  in  Los  Angeles  at  the  Sky-Hi.  They 
have  the  nicest  things  there,  daddy!  I  just  had  to 
stop  off  for  a  few  minutes  and  I  couldn't  look  without 
buying  a  new  whistle." 

Bob  Allison  stood  aside  as  I  remonstrated  with  Joan. 
He  was  smiling  happily.  I  wondered  if  Joan  would 
recognize  him  after  a  lapse  of  ten  years.  She  grasped 
the  lapel  of  my  jacket  and  shook  it  playfully. 

"Father,"  she  whispered,  "who  is  that  handsome 
young  Lieutenant  standing  over  there?  His  face  seems 
familiar.  Why  the  idea!  He's  even  flirting  with  me! 
How  brazen!" 

She  stamped  a  daintily-clad  foot,  still  encased  in  her 


narrow,  orange  and  red  Bathing  slippers. 

"Why  Joan,  dear!"  I  said,  feigning  an  expression 
of  astonishment.  "Don't  you  know  that  young  man? 
I'm  ashamed  of  you,  Joan.  Think  hard,  and  see  if 
you  can't  remember  the  young  man  you  used  to  think 
was  put  into  this  world  for  the  sole  purpose  of  teasing 
you." 

CHAPTER  II 
Making  Plans 

1 WINKED  at  Bob,  who  maintained  his  distance, 
taking  pleasant  amusement  out  of  the  situation.  He 
smiled  broadly  behind  a  gloved  hand  that  hid  most 
of  his  face. 

"You  don't  mean  to  tell  me  that  he  is  that  little 
shrimp  of  a  Robert  Allison,  do  you,  daddy?"  she  asked, 
excitedly.  "Why  the  very  idea!  He  still  laughs  at  me, 
too  I  I  hate  him  1" 

"It's  Bob  Allison  and  no  other,  darling,"  I  said, 
patting  her  gently.  "He  piloted  the  Annihilator  here 
from  Kitty  Hawk  just  to  see  you,  Joan.  He's  going 
to  be  our  guest  until  the  ship  departs  at  seven.  Come 
here,  Bob!" 

In  several  swift  strides  Bob  reached  us,  hat  in  hand, 
his  dark  brown  hair  ruffled  by  a  slight  breeze  blowing 
in  from  the  west. 

"Joan,"  I  said,  turning  her  head  around  after  she 
had  deliberately  swung  her  upturned  face  toward  the 
Annihilator.  "This  is  Robert  Allison,  son  of  my  very 
dear  friend,  Senator  Allison.  You  remember  Bob  from 
your  childhood  days  back  in  Washington,  don't  you? 
He  thinks  your  nose  is  very  pretty  now,  don't  you 
Bob,  my  boy?" 

"I-  think  it  is  adorable,  Mr.  Holdon,"  he  replied, 
enthusiastically.  "In  fact  I  think  it  is  the  prettiest 
nose  I  ever  saw !  Honest,  Joan !  If  you'll  give  me  a 
chance  to  appraise  it  I'll  " 

"You'll  laugh  at  it,  Bob  Allison,"  she  interrupted 
impudently.  "I'll  never  forgive  you  for  teasing  me 
about  my  funny  little  nose!" 

"Ah,  Joan,"  said  Bob,  appealingly.  "That  was  only 
kid  play.  How  could  you  hold  any  bad-feelings  toward 
me  for  something  I  did  when  I  wasn't  responsible? 
You  seem. to  forget  that  you  always  called  me  'that 
little  shrimp  of  a  Bob  Allison',  don't  you?" 

The  sides  of  Joan's  pretty,  clearly-arched  lips 
twitched  in  an  effort  to  suppress  a  laugh  that  was 
struggling  to  find  an  outlet.  I  noticed  it  but  Bob  could 
hardly  have  seen  the  slight  movements,  for  he  con- 
tinued, ill  at  ease  over  her  impudent  attitude  toward 
him.  I  felt  that  Joan  was  enjoying  the  situation  at 
his  expense.  She  is  a  chip  off  the  old  block  when  it 
comes  to  teasing  people  who  appealed  to  her. 

"Just  think,  Joan,"  he  said,  softly.  "It's  been  ten 
years  since  I  laughed  at  your  nose.  I've  never  for- 
gotten and  I  am  here  really  to  ah-a-ah  er-er  apologize 
for  making  fun  of  it.   Honest,  Joan!" 

"Well  do  you  expect  me  to  stand  out  here  freezing 
to  death  while  you  stumble  all  over  yourself  trying  to 
apologize?"  she  said.  "I  never  accept  apologies  in 
public  anyhow,  Mr.  Allison.  You  may  accompany  us 
to  the  apartment." 

I  shot  a  wink  at  the  young  man  as  we  entered  the 
radio-controlled  elevator.  His  discomfiture  under  the 
stinging  lash  of  Joan's  ready  words  was  amusing 
indeed,  and  I  understood  perfectly  that  Joan  was 
merely  playing  with  him.  It  was  her  way  of  enjoying 
the  companionship  of  her  most  cherished  friends,  and 
of  course  Bob  could  not  know  this.    She  was  not 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


119 


unlike  any  other  woman — she  made  a  man  feel  as 
miserable  as  she  possibly  could ;  then  would  bring  him 
back  to  normalcy  with  soft  words  and  sympathy. 

Following  its  usual  sudden  drop,  the  elevator's  auto- 
matic doors  swung  open  and  we  found  ourselves  in  the 
broad,  spacious  hall  of  our  apartment  floor.  A  few 
seconds  walk  carried  us  to  my  apartment.  During 
the  rapid  drop  in  the  elevator  Joan  maintained  a  stoic 
attitude  toward  Bob.  He  seemed  very  uneasy  because 
apparently  Joan  still  resented  the  taunts  that  he  had 
playfully  heaped  upon  her  during  their  younger  days 
together.  I  was  enjoying  it  hugely,  although  I  felt 
that  poor  Bob  should  not  be  made  to  suffer  just  to 
satisfy  Joan's  coquettishness. 

"You've  a  nice  comfy  apartment  here,  Mr.  Holdon," 
Bob  volunteered  as  he  seated  himself  in  the  spacious 
divan  in  the  living  room. 

Without  a  word  Joan  made  haste  toward  her  own 
chamber.  I  did  not  doubt  but  that  she  was  chilled 
coming  into  the  open  air  out  of  the  warm  control  cabin 
of  her  little  plane. 

"Yes,  Bob,"  I  said,  handing  him  my  humidor  of 
favorite  cigars.  "Joan  and  I  like  it  here.  I'm  content 
to  remain  here  for  the  rest  of  my  days  if  I  can  keep 
that  female  upstart  out  of  mischief." 

"I  don't  seem  a  very  welcome  guest  to  her,  Mr. 
Holdon,"  he  said  disconsolately. 

I  could  not  suppress  a  laugh. 

"Don't  pay  any  attention  to  her  attitude,  my  boy! 
She  is  just  trying  to  tease  you — trying  to  have  some 
fun  in  her  own  way." 

"Oh!  So  that's  it?"  Bob  said,  brightening,  "She's 
still  the  same  old  Joan." 

"That's  right,  Bob!"  I  said,  grinning.  "She  was 
laughing  at  you  up  on  the  landing!" 

He  chuckled  softly  and  his  face  lightened  as  he 
settled  himself  into  a  more  comfortable  position. 

"I'm  a  dud  with  women,  Mr.  Holdon,"  he  said 
smiling.  "But  I— I  " 

"But  you're  one  of  the  best  pilots  in  the  United 
States  Air  Forces,  is  that  it?"  I  interrupted. 

"Nothing  like  that,"  he  smiled  modestly.  "There's 
a  lot  of  pilot-navigators  better  than  I,  and  I  don't  hold 
any  medals.  I  meant  to  say  that  I  have  not  had  much 
experience  with  the  fair  sex.  I've  been  too  busy  trying 
to  get  ahead.  Yet  I  always  cherished  a  secret  feeling 
for  Joan  that  killed  any  desire  to  mingle  with  others." 

"That's  heroic,  my  boy,"  I  said  with  admiration. 
"I've  watched  you  all  these  years,  through  my  own  and 
your  father's  eyes.  I'm  convinced  that  there's  not  a 
cleaner  or  more  upstanding  young  man  in  this  country 
than  you,  Bob." 

"It's  nice  of  you  to  say  that.  I  appreciate  it  sin- 
cerely," he  smiled. 

"Oh  I  have  reason  enough  for  saying  that,"  I  said, 
seriously.  "I've  always  figured  that  someday  you  and 

Joan  would  " 

"What's  that  you  say,  daddy?" 

A  Warning 

AT  the  sound  of  Joan's  musical  voice  I  turned. 
Bob  arose  politely,  delight  written  plainly  on  his 
tanned  features.  Joan  had  silently  entered  the  living 
room  and  was  smiling  radiantly. 

"Wh-y-y  Joan,"  Bob  stammered,  his  eyes  sparkling 
happily. 

"Don't  stammer  like  that,  Mr.  Allison,"  she  said. 
"Haven't  you  ever  seen  a  woman  before?" 
"Listen,  little  girl,"  I  said,  seriously,  "Let  Bob  alone! 


He's  leaving  with  the  Annihilator  at  seven  and  we 
just  have  time  for  a  quiet  dinner  and  an  inspection 
tour  of  the  ship  before  he  departs." 

"I'm  sorry,  Robert,"  she  said,  apologetically.  "You 
don't  know  how  glad  I  am  to  have  you  with  us.  Let's 
forget  all  that  childhood  silliness.  How  do  you  like 
this  evening  frock?  Isn't  it  pretty?" 

"It  is  pretty,  Joan,  but  it  doesn't  make  you  any  more 
beautiful  than  you  really  are,"  complimented  Bob, 
meaningly.  "You  are  beautiful,  Joan !" 

"Do  you  think  so,  Robert?  Father  sometimes  says 
I'm  a  little  hellcat  with  horns  on.  But  I  guess  I  am 
a  little  wild  at  times,"  she  laughed. 

"Your  father  don't  seem  to  realize  that  youth  must 
have  an  outlet  for  its  bubbling  vitality,  Joan."  Then 
he  turned  to  me  as  I  sat  regarding  them  through  half 
closed  lids.  "You've  got  to  expect  youth  to  be  wild  at 
times,  Mr.  Holdon.  I'm  sure  Joan  knows  what  she's 
doing." 

"Humph!"  I  grunted.  "You  might  be  right  but  I'm 
not  going  to  admit  it !  I  had  a  young  colt  once  out  in 
California  that  was  as  wild  as  Joan  ami  " 

"Oh  daddy  dear,  I've  heard  about  that  colt  for  fifteen 
years,"  Joan  laughed,  dashing  over  to  my  side  and 
placing  a  sweet-scented  hand  over  my  lips.  "Haven't 
you  ever  thought  of  burying  it?" 

"Alright,  youngsters,  have  your  fun  while  I  order 
dinner  sent  up.  Just  make  yourselves  happy  and  for- 
get about  everything  but  bubbling  and  silly  youth.  I'll 
call  you  when  dinner  is  ready." 

"Filet  mignon  et  table  d'hote  for  Bob  and  daddy," 
Joan  called  after  me  as  I  walked  toward  the  Automa- 
ton Service  Control  hidden  behind  a  beautifully-carved 
closet  door  in  the  dining  salon.  The  Automaton  service 
had  become  a  boon  to  hotel  and  apartment  dwellers  in 
1941,  lowering  the  cost  of  living  considerably  and  do- 
ing away  with  whatever  maid  and  valet  relief  that  was 
required  in  the  earlier  days  by  fashion  and  leisure. 

I  glanced  over  the  menu  board,  controlled  auto- 
matically from  far  below  in  the  chefs'  kitchens,  pressed 
a  series  of  buttons  on  the  panel  and  a  few  minutes 
later  a  low  buzzing  sound  issuing  from  an  announcing 
cowl,  told  me  that  our  dinners  had  arrived.  I  busied 
myself  setting  the  table.  Usually  Joan's  nimble  hands 
decorated  the  dining  table,  but  on  this  occasion  I  under- 
took to  perform  those  details  myself,  allowing  Joan 
and  Bob  to  enjoy  a  few  quiet  moments  in  the  living 
room  before  his  departure  in  the  Annihilator. 

Frequently,  as  I  busied  myself  in  the  dining  salon, 
I  could  hear  their  laughter.  I  conjectured  that  they 
were  discussing  their  younger  days  together  and  I 
listened  intently,  for  it  is  the  gay  spirit  of  vigorous 
youth  that  makes  life  worth  living  for  the  elder 
generation. 

"Don't  be  silly,  Robert,"  Joan  was  laughing,  "Ralph 
Jordan  never  did  mean  anything  to  me." 

"Well,  all  the  kids  in  our  set  considered  him  your 
beau,"  Bob  said,  seriously. 

"Ralph  was  a  nice  boy,  and  he  was  the  only  one 
who  did  not  take  great  delight  in  teasing  me.  But 
Ralph  isn't  the  kind  of  a  man  that  appeals  to  me. 
He  simply  cannot  keep  up  my  pace.  He's  too  old- 
fashioned  and  still  clings  to  a  slow  old  plane  that  has 
been  in  his  family  for  years."  Joan  said,  meaningly. 

"That's  comforting,  Joan,"  Bob  whispered,  "Maybe 
I'm  not  too  late." 

"I  never  dreamed  you  felt  that  way  toward  me, 
Robert,"  Joan  replied. 

"No?" 


120 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


"You  always  seemed  too  interested  in  aero-dynamics 
and  physics  to  pay  any  attention  to  me  after  we  out- 
grew our  childhood  bitternesses." 

"But  I  always  had  an  indelible  picture  of  you 
stamped  in  my  mind,  Joan.  I  always  hoped  that  per- 
haps someday  well,  that  we  might  meet  again  in  a 

more  pleasant  manner." 

"Why,  Robert  " 

"Oh,  I've  always  loved  you,  Joan !" 

Joan  was  searching  his  eyes  intently.  I  had  a  guilty 
feeling  as  I  watched,  unobserved.  Bob's  face  was 
flushed  but  his  eyes  were  on  Joan,  glowing  with  ad- 
miration. Dinner  was  ready  and  waiting  on  the  table 
yet  I  hesitated  to  interrupt  them.  A  feeling  of  content 
surged  through  me.  What  could  be  better  than  a 
match  between  the  son  of  my  dearest  friend  and  my 
own  wild,  impulsive  Joan?  I  turned  away  and  sat 
down  in  front  of  my  television  for  the  news  of  the 
day,  leaving  the  two  in  the  living  room  to  their  own 
thoughts  and  aspirations,  although  I  wanted  Bob  to 
explain  to  me  the  principles  of  the  great  Annihilator. 

At  the  touch  of  my  fingers  on  the  tiny  button  switch, 
the  television  screen  glowed  before  me.  I  moved  the 
single  dial  control  gently  and  as  has  been  my  habit,  I 
tuned  in  on  the  government  weather  bureau  in  Wash- 
ington. Softly  the  features  of  the  official  announcer 
appeared  on  the  screen.  He  began  his  usual  droning 
report.  I  throttled  down  the  volume  of  his  voice. 

"All  aircraft  flying  lanes  over  the  Divide  are  advised 
to  shift  43  kilometers  to  the  south  of  the  Denver 
summits  to  avoid  a  terrific  up-draft  of  air  sweeping 
upward  from  latitude  17  today,"  the  announcer  was 
saying.  "This  upward  pressure,  P/Po  density  of  o-37S 
velocity,  is  lifting  from  SO  feet,  to  an  elevation  beyond 
the  surface  of  the  earth's  atmosphere.  All  craft  are 
warned  against  the  up-draft,  for  its  upward  suction  is 
reported  by  the  Rocky  Mountain  weather  observer  to 
be  more  rapid  and  pronounced  than  it  has  been  for 
many  years.  A  powerful  electrical  storm  is  reported 
raging  in  that  vicinity  at  an  elevation  of  80,000  feet, 
o.90  to  1.4  kilograms  per  centimeter  of  width.  Stay 
clear!  All  craft  pulled  into  the  draft  will  be  drawn 
up  into  the  outer  atmospheres  with  no  hope  of  return- 
ing to  earth.  D.M.  announcing.  Please  stand  by  for 
further  storm  warnings!" 

Allison  Boasts  , 
«T  ORD,"  I  whistled,  "I'd  hate  to  get  caught  in 

J_/that  up-draft!  It's  a  wonder  that  science  has 
not  found  some  way  of  breaking  the  force  of  it.  That 
pressure  forming  a  down-draft  on  one  side  of  the 
Divide  over  the  ridge  and  an  up-suction  on  the  other 
with  a  wide  ratio,  causes  more  serious  accidents  than 
all  the  air-pockets  over  the  Pacific  between  San 
Francisco  and  Hawaii.  Oh,  "wel],  that  warning  will 
keep  planes  away  from  the  draft.  They'd  be  fools  to 
fly  into  it!" 

"What's  the  matter,  daddy,  your  face  is  the  color 
of  chalk?" 

Joan  was  Standing  beside  the  set  dining  table  with 
a  hand  looped  through  Bob's  arm.  They  were  smiling 
happily. 

"The  Washington  bureau  just  announced  that  a 
high-velocity  up-draft  is  sweeping  upward  over  the 
Divide.  I  was  thinking  what  a  terrible  thing  it  would 
be  to  be  drawn  up  into  the  outer  reaches  of  the  earth's 
atmosphere  with  no  hope  of  getting  back  to  earth. 
That  means  any  ship  caught  in  it  would  be  shot  out  of 
the  earth's  orbit  where  the  absence  of  gravity  would 
pull  the  craft  into  the  infinite,  probably  to  spin  around 


the  globe  eternally  like  a  new  satellite." 

"Oh,  daddy  1  Your  imagination  is  running  away 
from  you  I  Nothing  like  that  could  happen,''  Joan 
said,  with  a  shudder.  "Have  you  got  dinner  ready? 
We've  just  time  to  eat  and  inspect  the  Annihilator." 

"Nevertheless,  my  dear,"  I  said,  "you  are  not  going 
into  the  air  tonight!  No  telling  just  what  direction 
that  up-draft  will  shift  I'm  not  taking  any  chances 
of  you  attempting  to  explore  the  outer  atmosphere  of 
the  earth  I" 

"That's  right,  Mr.  Holdon,"  Bob  said,  holding  a 
chair  for  Joan  at  the  table.  "Such  explorations  should 
be  confined  to  the  Annihilator." 

"You  don't  mean,  Bob,"  I  inquired,  "that  the 
Annihilator  could  navigate  that  powerful  Divide 
pressure?" 

"The  Annihilator  can  conquer  anything  but  inter- 
planetary travel,  Mr.  Holdon,"  he  answered,  proudly. 
"She's  not  quite  strong  enough  for  that." 

"But  you  wouldn't  attempt  to  fly  through  the  pres- 
sure of  a  high-velocity  up-draft,  would  you,  Robert?" 
Joan  asked,  rubbling  daintily  at  a  wafer,  plainly 
alarmed. 

"I  wouldn't,  of  course,  Joan,"  Bob  said,  smiling 
affably,  "but  if  our  orders  were  to  fly  a  straight  course 
from  Denver  to  New  York  we  could  hardly  escape  the 
draft.  I'm  sure  the  Annihilator  can  pass  through  it 
under  the  force  of  her  powerful  driving  exhausts." 

"You  have  a  lot  of  faith  in  that  ship.  Bob,"  I  said. 
"Aircraft  have  been  destroyed  in  Divide  drafts  for 
years." 

"That's  true  too.  But  no  craft  as  powerful  as  the 
Annihilator  has  ever  been  drawn  into  them,"  he  smiled, 
enthusiastically. 

"Just  the  same  I  am,  proverbially,  a  Missourian. 
I've  still  got  to  be  shown,"  I  said  with  an  uneasy  laugh. 

Following  the  very  pleasant  dinner,  we  donned  our 
jackets  and  helmets  and  were  lifted  up  to  the  port  of 
landing  on  top  of  the  towering  Wright  obelisk.  The 
sky  to  the  east  was  murky  with  a  heavy  mist.  Black 
clouds  hovered  high  overhead  and  the  ominous  roar  of 
distant  thunder  could  be  heard  frequently.  The  sun 
had  set  in  a  horizon  of  blood-colored  clouds  and  the 
very  atmosphere  seemed  foreboding.  Yet  in  spite  of 
a  pending  storm,  commercial  craft  dotted  the  sky 
hurrying  to  reach  their  destinations  and  discharge  their 
cargoes  and  passengers.  From  the  murk  high  over- 
head came  the  periodical  hooting  of  some  huge  craft's 
right-of-way  horn.  Ordinarily,  the  usual  storms  and 
uncertainty  of  the  elements  would  not  prevent  craft 
from  keeping  aloft,  for  air  vessels  were  constructed  to 
withstand  them.  But  the  ominous  warning  from  the 
Washington  Weather  Bureau  had  obtained  results  in 
so  far  as  pleasure  flight  was  concerned. 

Presently,  Lieutenant  Allison  obtained  the  necessary 
passports  permitting  Joan  and  me  to  enter  the 
Annihilator.  He  ushered  us  into  a  receiving  elevator 
that  had  been  dropped  from  the  interior  of  the  craft 
to  the  floor  of  the  landing  and  we  were  lifted  into  a 
spacious  and  luxurious  reception  room.  Joan  paused 
to  greet  an  acquaintance  while  Bob  handed  our  passes 
to  the  Officer  of  the  Day  sitting  at  a  little  desk  near 
a  rigid,  metallic  door  that  opened  into  the  central 
chambers  of  the  ship. 

"Pardon  me,  Joan."  Bob  smiled,  taking  her  by  the 
arm.  "We've  got  to  hurry.  The  ship  leaves  on 
schedule." 

I  trailed  along  behind  them  as  they  entered  the  ship's 
huge  interior. 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


121 


Considering  the  arrangements  of  the  cabins  in  the 
big  craft,  it  was  not  so  terribly  different  from  the 
usual  palatial  airliners  in  hourly  service  between  New 
York  and  Paris  or  Los  Angeles  and  Shanghai  across 
well-established  airlane  routes.  It  contained  a  great, 
luxuriously  decorated  dining  hall  for  commanding 
officers  and  guests,  well  up  forward.  Officers'  cabins, 
spacious  and  neat,  with  double  white  metal  bedsteads, 
lined  a  network  of  wide  hall-like  companionways. 

Occasionally  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  drop  down 
small  flights  of  rigid  stairs  and  cross  over  metal  web- 
bings to  get  to  other  sections  of  the  main  deck.  I 
inquired  why  this  was  necessary  and  I  was  astonished 
to  learn  from  Bob  that  all  decks  were  suspended  on 
a  gyroscopic  principle,  like  the  old-time  floating  com- 
passes of  the  early  mariners.  By  this  principle,  he 
explained  for  my  benefit,  the  decks  would  remain  on 
an  even,  flat  surface,  regardless  to  whatever  angle  the 
body  of  the  craft  might  be  tilted. 

"You  see,  Mr.  Holdon,"  Bob  explained,  hardly  re- 
moving his  eyes  from  Joan's  enticing  features,  "this 
ship  is  constructed  on  a  sort  of  a  fourth  dimensional 
principle.  There  are  many  new  features  that  have 
heretofore  been  untried.  The  gratings  which  we  just 
crossed  over  are  more  or  less  heat  radiators.  It  gets 
mighty  cold  above  the  50,000  foot  elevation  and  we 
must  have  warmth.  The  Annihilator  departs  abruptly 
from  the  old  type  of  airship  and  is  of  rigid  construc- 
tion throughout  its  exterior. 

Something  New  In  Aeronautics 
"'TpHE  Annihilator  is  constructed  entirely  of  cobalt- 
X  steel  with  the  interior  structure  of  four-electron 
Beryllium,  the  strongest  and  lightest  metal  known.  The 
cobalt-steel  structure  is  highly  magnetic  and  to  a  great 
extent  conquers  gravity  through  magnetic  repulsion. 
This  is  the  first  vitally  important  step  of  science  to- 
ward the  expansion  of  phenomena  of  electromagnetism. 
To  be  perfectly  frank,  this  ship  can  actually  fly  with- 
out the  use  of  the  exhaust  drive  or  any  other  mediums 
of  propulsion.  Magnetized  cobalt-steel,  with  its  power 
to  repulse  the  gravitational  pull,  can  carry  this  craft 
through  the  air  at  an  astounding  velocity.  But  by 
adding  the  exhaust  driving  system,  much  has  been 
added  to  the  speed  of  this  type  of  aircraft.  The 
velocity  is  increased  some  six  hundred  miles  per  hour. 

"You  are  probably  aware,  Mr.  Holdon,  that  these 
equations  of  gravitational  repulsion  are  not  entirely 
new.  The  famous  Einstein  theories  of  the  old  days 
on  relativity  have  just  been  developed.  American 
scientists,  working  secretly  in  the  Washington  Labora- 
tories of  the  government,  have  at  last  succeeded  in 
insulating  against  gravity,  proving  the  Einstein  theory 
that  electromagnetism  and  gravitation  are  actually  the 
same  thing.  According  to  the  theories  of  Dr.  Bryce 
B.  Sheldon,  head  of  the  Department  of  Physics  at 
the  Kitty  Hawk  Laboratories,  we  need  not  be  surprised 
if  interplanetary  travel  will  shortly  become  a  reality 
through  the  medium  of  electromagnetism." 

"Now,  daddy,  you  understand  everything  about  the 
construction  and  gravitational  repulsion  of  the 
Annihilator,"  said  Joan  with  an  excited  laugh.  "Lets 
see  if  you  can  remember  it  all.  Robert,  you  certainly 
understand  your  physics  and  aero-dynamics,  dont 
you?" 

"And  blamed  little  about  women!"  I  put  in. 
Bob's  skin  colored  under  a  flush. 
"I  don't  know  about  that,  father,"  said  Joan  in  his 
defense.  "He  isn't  so  shy  as  one  would  think." 
"All  the  same  he's  not  a  ladies'  man,  Joan,"  I  said, 


"else  he  would  have  had  a  fine  time  trying  to  explain 
the  development  of  electromagnetism,  cobalt-steel  and 
Einstein  theories.  By  the  way,  Bob,  what  are  the 
collapsible  aerofoils  along  the  side  of  the  ship  used 
for  when  it  can  rise  and  land  by  gravitational  ac- 
ceptance and  repulsion?" 

"Oh,  you  mean  the  safety  aerofoils?  We  were  test- 
ing them  out  on  landing.  They  are  used  for  a  gliding 
landing  if  anything  goes  wrong  with  the  electro- 
magnetism generating  system.  It  does  take  a  lot  of 
work  to  absorb  all  that  stuff,  Mr.  Holdon,  but  now 
that  I'm  beginning  to  learn  something  about  eternal 
femininism,  I  think  I  shall  ask  for  a  transfer  to  the 
San  Diego  station  so  I  can  fly  over  here  in  an  hour 
or  so. 

"I  see!  I  hadn't  thought  of  the  aerofoils  as  safety 
units,"  I  said.  "It  would  be  nice  to  have  you  near 
here.  We  could  see  you  often.  What  do  you  think 
about  it,  Joan?" 

"I  wouldn't  mind  it  at  all,  daddy,"  she  replied,  look- 
ing at  Bob  squarely.  "But  didn't  I  hear  you  say 
yesterday  that  you  intended  to  visit  Kitty  Hawk  for 
a  month  or  so?" 

"Really,  Mr.  Holdon?"  Bob  asked,  eagerly.  "Of 
course  you  both  will  be  my  guests  when  you  come. 
I'll  be  waiting  for  you." 

"I'm  not  certain  yet,  Bob.  I'll  think  it  over  tonight 
and  let  you  know  in  the  morning,"  I  returned.  Bob 
looked  at  the  chronometer  strapped  to  his  left  wrist. 

"I'm  afraid  we'll  have  to  take  a  hurried  glimpse 
at  the  under-decks,  control  cabin  and  mechanical  com- 
partments, Mr.  Holdon,"  he  said,  excitedly.  "It's 
almost  time  for  us  to  take  off  and  I  want  you  both 
to  see  them." 

"Perhaps  we'd  better  just  look  at  the  controlling 
system,  Robert,"  Joan  put  in.  "You  can  explain  the 
mechanical  units  as  we  go  along." 

"Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  there  really  isn't  much  to 
see  in  the  mechanical  compartment,"  he  said,  smiling. 
"In  fact  there's  nothing  in  the  way  of  open  apparatus- 
it's  all  rigid  and  stationery  and  operated  along  the  air- 
current  principle.  Everything  is  encased  in  Beryllium 
housings  and  various  gases  are  forced  from  supply 
tanks  into  the  explosive  chambers  and  vented  through 
the  driving  exhausts.  There  are  several  generating 
dynamos  operated  from  special  air-pressure  tanks,  that 
furnishes  the  electro-magnetic  power  for  the  repulsion 
of  gravity.  Of  course  you  understand  that  the  ship  is 
not  capable  of  nullifying  gravity  in  its  entirety.  But 
to  a  large  extent,  the  insulation  against  it  makes  it 
possible  for  us  to  rise  straight  up  to  a  certain  eleva- 
tion where  a  diminished  gravitational  pull  exists.  We 
will  eventually  insulate  against  that  too." 

We  walked  along  a  wide,  central  promenade  toward 
the  sharply  pointed  nose  of  the  Annihilator.  Joan 
watched  Bob's  face  intently  as  he  explained  some  of 
the  more  important  principles  in  the  construction  of 
the  great  ship.  Frequently  he  gave  her  arm  a  gentle 
squeeze  and  they  both  smiled.  As  fine  a  couple  and 
as  healthy  and  vigorous  a  pair  as  I  have  ever  seen,  I 
said  to  myself,  admiring  Joan's  shapely  figure,  and 
Bob's  squared  military  shoulders. 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Take-off 

WE  had  no  more  than  entered  tne  control  cabin 
and  concentrated  on  the  maze  of  instruments 
it  contained,  when  a  loud  gong  sounded  some- 
where within  the  ship.  I  was  disappointed  when  Bob 
explained  that  it  was  the  signal  for  all  members  of 


122  AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


the  crew  and  officers'  staff  to  report  at  once  for  the 
take-off.  I  glanced  around  the  control  cabin  trying  to 
appraise  the  many  and  varied  instruments  that  it  con- 
tained  but  Bob's  voice  called  my  attention  from  them 
and  we  returned  to  the  craft's  discharging  elevators. 

Night  had  fallen  when  we  found  ourselves  deposited 
on  the  landing.  In  spite  of  the  glaring  flood-lights  that 
bathed  the  entire  airdrome  and  its  brood  of  aircraft  in 
white,  I  could  see  occasional  flashes  of  lightning  flaring 
jaggedly  from  behind  banks  of  ominous  black  clouds 
toward  the  east.  For  miles  and  miles  the  Divide  ap- 
peared to  be  blanketed  with  a  cloak  of  milling,  twist- 
ing doudbanks,  outlined  clearly  by  the  jagged  streaks 
of  electricity.  Few  planes  were  in  the  air  and  they 
were  marked  with  their  own  brilliant  aileron  and  aero- 
foil lights,  typical  of  restless  commercial  craft.  They 
scudded  through  the  air  swiftly,  like  scattered  night- 
birds. 

"I'm  sorry,  folks,"  Bob  said  with  a  resigned  gesture 
as  we  stood  for  the  last  few  minutes  with  him  before 
the  scheduled  departure  of  the  Annihilator,  "I'm  sorry 
you  didn't  have  a  chance  to  see  the  controlling  system 
of  the  Annihilator.  Really  it's  worth  seeing." 

"That's  perfectly  alright,  Robert,"  said  Joan,  placing 
a  hand  on  his  sleeve,  "that  will  be  an  incentive  for  you 
to  come  again— to  show  father  the  controls." 

"Don't  listen  to  her,  my  boy,"  I  said,  "It  will  be 
an  incentive  for  us  to  visit  you  at  Kitty  Hawk!  I've 
got  to  see  through  that  ship  and  I'm  sure  Joan  would 
like  to  go  through  it  again  with  you." 

"That's  great,  Mr.  Holdon!  I'll  tell  dad  that  you 
are  coming  and  he'll  be  down  from  Washington  to  see 
you."  Bob  said,  pleased.  "I've  got  to  get  aboard  now. 
I  don't  want  to  be  left  as  much  as  I'd  like  to  re- 
main here.  I'll  be  expecting  to  see  you  both  in  Kitty 
Hawk  sometime  tomorrow."  He  turned  to  Joan. 
"Good-bye,  Joan,"  he  said.  "You'll  come,  won't  you?" 

"We  will,  Robert,"  she  replied,  earnestly.  "We'll 
leave  in  the  morning  and  be  in  Kitty  Hawk  in  time 
for  afternoon  tea.  My  speedster  can  do  it  in  three 
hours!" 

"Will  you  go  to  the  Officers'  Club  dance  with  me 
tomorrow  night?"  he  asked,  eagerly. 

"If  you  want  me  to,"  she  whispered,  softly. 

"Thank  you,  Joan  I  Good-bye,  Mr.  Holdon.  See 
you  tomorrow.  By  the  way,  we'll  broadcast  our  voyage 
to  New  York.  You  can  pick  us  up  with  your  television, 
if  you  wish,  but  we  will  not  be  able  to  talk.  With 
your  42  power  receiver  you  ought  to  be  able  to  follow 
the  ship  through.  We  broadcast  at  24,500  Kilocycles 
on  the  14  channel  band." 

"Good-bye,  my  boy,"  I  said,  as  he  took  Joan's  small 
hand  affectionately.  "I'll  watch  you  all  the  way  to 
New  York.   My  regards  to  your  father." 

With  that,  Lieutenant  Allison  entered  the  open 
shuttles  of  the  receiving  lifts  and  was  wafted  up  into 
the  control  room  of  the  Annihilator.  Presently  we  saw 
his  face  at  a  control  cabin  window.  Joan  waved  a 
hand.  I  smiled  up  at  him  pleasantly  and  nodded. 

Suddenly  a  hissing  sound  surged  through  the 
Amihilator  and  I  hustled  Joan  away.  Spectators  had 
already  taken  to  a  safe  distance.  The  body  of  the 
ship  seemed  to  glow  for  an  instant  as  the  magnetic 
energy  passed  into  its  cobalt-steel  casing.  Insulation, 
repelling  gravity,  had  been  contacted  and  the  ship  rose 
into  the  air  gracefully  and  swiftly,  her  driving  exhaust 
tubes  silent  and  dead.  With  an  eagle-like  swoop  she 
turned  her  nose  upward  in  a  hall  loop  and  headed 
eastward  into  the  thick,  murky  haze.  Long  streamers 


of  brilliant  light  shot  ahead  of  the  ship  and  from  the 
cabin  windows  along  her  trim  stream-lines,  there  came 
the  constant  glow  of  her  internal  lights. 

We  watched  the  Annihilator  as  she  passed  out  of 
vision  into  the  eastern  blackness.  She  raced  more 
than  five  miles  eastward  before  she  suddenly  opened 
her  exhaust  tubes.  Where  we  stood  we  could  hear  the 
steady  roar  of  her  propulsion  explosions.  The  roar 
gradually  died  away  as  the  great  craft  gained  momen- 
tum. Occasionally  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  streaks 
of  fire  trailing  along  in  her  wake.  Gradually  they  too 
disappeared  into  the  blackened  eastern  heavens. 
Quickly,  Joan  and  I  walked  into  an  open  elevator  and 
soon  found  ourselves  in  the  apartment,  glad  to  feel 
the  warmth  of  the  automatic  heaters,  for  it  had  grown 
chilly  on  the  landing. 

Presently  I  found  myself  studying  Joan's  radiant 
features.  Her  dark  brown  hair  hung  in  thin,  curling 
whisps  around  her  temples.  She  had  donned  a  com- 
fortable dressing  grown  and  was  seated  on  the  divan, 
scanning  over  the  pages  of  the  Aero-Chronicle.  Oddly 
she  seemed  a  very  different  girl  from  her  usual  con- 
fident, impulsive  self.  Ordinarily  at  this  time  she  would 
have  been  scudding  across  the  sky  to  visit  some  friend 
miles  away  or  transporting  her  chums  to  a  party  in  her 
snappy  little  aerospeedster.  ,  Now  she  remained  at 
home  for  a  quiet  evening  for  the  first  time  since  we 
had  taken  up  our  abode  in  Denver. 

"What's  the  matter,  Joan  dear?"  I  asked. 

"Nothing,  father,"  she  replied  without  lifting  her 
face.  "I  just  feel  like  staying  home  this  evening.  Why 
do  you  ask?" 

"No  reason  at  all,  dear.  I  thought  it  rather  odd 
that  you  would  elect  to  remain  home  with  me  so  sud- 
denly. It's  going  to  be  a  bad  night,  isn't  it?"  I  said, 
walking  over  to  my  eastern  exposure  to  scan  the  sky. 

What  the  Television  Showed 

THROUGH  an  almost  constant  display  of  lightning 
I  could  see  the  black  clouds  in  the  east,  tumbling 
violently  under  an  upward  pressure.  The  heavens  over 
the  Divide  were  in  an  uproar.  Thunderous  claps 
reached  my  ears  and  lightning  flashed  in  long,  jagged 
streaks  that  seemed  alive  with  fire.  A  terrible,  fright- 
ful night  over  the  Rocky  Mountain  summits!  But 
aircraft  would  avoid  the  upheaval  of  the  elements  at 
merely  the  cost  of  a  slight  delay. 

Hardly  more  than  ten  minutes  had  elapsed  following 
the  departure  of  the  Annihilator  until  I  donned  my 
smoking  jacket  and  sat  down  at  the  television  receiver. 
Slowly  I  adjusted  the  controls  and  gradually  the  long 
shape  of  the  air-leviathan  loomed  on  the  screen,  glisten- 
ing under  a  coat  of  ice,  which  was  very  unusual  for 
this  season.  She  seemed  to  be  in  the  very  center  of  a 
terrific  storm  and  while  the  atmosphere  seemed  void 
of  snow,  the  ship  was  actually  encrusted  by  ice!  She 
was  traveling  at  an  amazing  velocity  and  I  tuned  in 
the  powerful  radio  reception  units  of  the  television. 
Suddenly  the  hissing  roar  of  her  driving  exhausts  came 
in  through  the  super-dynamic  reproductive  coils.  The 
suddeness  of  its  roar  and  volume  caused  Joan  to  jump, 
nervously,  stifling  a  little  cry.  I  throttled  the  instru- 
ments until  the  roar  was  barely  audible.  Claps  of 
thunder  frequently  caused  the  coils  to  sputter,  and 
flashes  of  high-tension  lightning  created  an  occasional 
glow  along  the  reducing  units. 

Joan  walked  to  my  side  and  sat  down.  I  turned  on 
the  double-wave  screen  in  front  of  her  and  tuned  it  on 
the  14  channel  band.  The  Annihilator,  pitching  peril- 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


123 


ously  and  fighting  to  retain  even  keel,  glowed  on  the 
screen.  The  great  craft  was  at  last  above  the  Divide, 
enveloped  by  upward  tumbling  clouds  thil  whirled 
toward  the  infinite  like  the  spinning  cone  of  a  tornado. 
The  roar  of  a  terrific  suction-pressure  and  the  low 
steady  moan  of  the  ship's  driving  exhausts,  sounded 
ominously  in  the  reproduction  units.  Yet  in  spite  of 
the  maddened  elements,  the  Annihiiator  seemed  to  be 
holding  her  own  and  I  patted  Joan's  tensed  hands 
assuringly.  She  stared  at  the  glowing  screen,  a  worried 
look  on  her  ordinarily  joyously  alive  features. 

"They'll  make  it,  Joan!"  I  said,  although  I  was 
keenly  afraid  that  the  terrific  up-draft  would  win  over 
such  a  huge  craft  as  the  Annihiiator.  Despite  her 
super-powers  to  combat  the  elements,  I  felt  that  she 
was  meeting  her  match  in  the  whirling,  upward 
pressure  I 

"But,  daddy,"  Joan  said  suddenly,  "she  doesn't  seem 
to  be  moving  ahead  at  all!" 

I  stared  fixedly  at  the  screen.  The  Annihiiator  was 
pitching  and  rolling  dangerously,  her  nose  leaping  in 
quick  jerks  toward  the  upper  levels!  Her  pilots  were 
fighting  madly  to  keep  her  nose  pointing  to  earth  but 
with  each  terrific  upward  jerk,  she  was  lifted  skyward 
at  an  increasing  angle.  The  Annihiiator  had  en- 
countered an  up-draft,  more  terrible  in  its  form  than 
it  had  been  for  nearly  a  century ! 

"My  God,  Joan!"  I  gasped,  "They're  in  it  I  Tune 
your  screen  in  on  24,500  Kilocycles  slightly  under  the 
14th  channel  band  and  pick  up  the  ship's  control 
cabin  I" 

Instantly  Joan's  quick  fingers  manipulated  the  dials 
and  the  surface  picture  of  the  Annihiiator,  rolling  and 
tumbling  madly,  disappeared  from  the  screen.  She 
switched  on  the  reserve  reproduction  coils,  auto- 
matically breaking  the  circuit  in  the  coils  at  my  hand, 
and,  simultaneously  with  the  sound  of  shouting  voices, 
her  screen  glowed  with  a  clear  picture  of  the  cabin's 
interior!  Together  we  watched  the  perilous  motion  of 
the  craft  and  the  excited  pilots  controlling  the  ship 
from  her  cabin.  Alternating  my  gaze  between  the 
two  glowing  screens,  I  immediately  saw  that  Lieutenant 
Bob  Allison  was  sitting  at  the  wheel  controlling  the 
stabilizing  aerofoils  at  her  tail,  his  face  grim,  deter- 
mined and  pale.  His  hands  clung  to  the  jerking  wheel 
with  a  grip  of  steel  He  manipulated  the  control  for- 
ward occasionally  and  just  as  often  the  tremendous 
force  of  the  up-draft  shot  it  back.  He  groaned  once 
when  the  controlling  wheel  shot  back,  pinning  him 
between  it  and  the  rigid  accommodation  in  which  he  sat. 
He  worked  the  wheel  forward  slowly.  Each  move- 
ment of  the  controlling  system  was  clearly  defined  on 
the  screen  in  front  of  me,  for  each  time  Bob  shoved  it 
forward,  the  Annihiiator  smoothed  out,  her  nose 
pointed  slightly  to  earth. 

Joan  watched  Bob  Allison  intently  as  he  strove  to 
prevent  the  ship  from  shooting  into  the  upper  atmos- 
pheric reaches.  I  glanced  at  her  face.  It  was  white. 
Her  lips  quivered  slightly  as  though  stifling  a  sob.  I 
said  nothing,  and  concentrated  on  the  scenes  before  us. 

That  Bob  was  weakening  at  the  stabilizing  control 
was  easy  to  be  seen.  I  groaned  and  Joan  placed  a 
shaking  hand  on  mine.  Suddenly  his  voice,  weak  and 
shaking,  calling  for  assistance,  came  to  us  through  the 
coils.  Again  the  wheel  shot  back  and  struck  him 
across  the  chest  with  such  force  that  it  caused  his  face 
to  color  with  a  bluish  tint.  I  noticed  a  thin  trickle 
of  blood  oozing  from  the  corner  of  his  mouth.  Joan 
screamed  and  hid  her  eyes.  Bob  slumped  in  his  seat, 


his  hands  frozen  tightly  on  the  wheel.  There  was  a 
scurry  of  activity  in  the  cabin  as  other  pilots  dashed 
for  the  snapping  control.  I  tore  my  eyes  from  the 
cabin  scene  and  glanced  at  the  ship  entangled  in  the 
whirling  elements. 

Scarcely  had  my  eyes  settled  on  the  tumbling  craft 
than  her  nose  shot  upward  with  a  terrific  jerk! 
Instantly  the  Annihiiator  rolled  over,  on  end,  and 
plunged  like  a  comet  toward  the  upper  reaches.  I  cast 
a  rapid  glance  at  the  other  screen.  The  cabin  was  in 
an  uproar  and  men  were  milling  frantically  back  and 
forth  across  the  even  surface  of  the  gyroscopic  floor. 
Bob  still  sat  in  the  pilot  accommodation  while  two  relief 
pilots  clung  rigidly  to  the  wheel,  snapping  them  back 
and  forth  like  whip-lashes,  Bob  was  senseless  from  the 
steady  pound  of  the  whipping  control  against  his 
breast.  I  stifled  a  groan.  There  was  the  son  of  my 
dearest  friend,  in  mortal  agony  and  perilous  danger, 
before  my  very  eyes,  and  I  was  powerless  to  aid  him  I 
Joan  stared  at  the  scene  through  wide  eyes  that  were 
moist  and  red.  I  felt  a  lump  rise  in  my  throat.  Here 

was  the  end  of  the  Annihiiator,  I  thought,  and  the 

abrupt  passing  of  Robert  Allison  who  seemed  as  much 
of  a  son  of  my  own  as  he  was  of  my  friend,  Senator 
Allison.  I  wondered  if  the  Senator  was  aware  of  the 
catastrophe.  He  probably  was,  I  decided,  and  like  our- 
selves, was  watching  through  his  television  screens, 
each  sickening  plunge  of  the  huge  craft. 

Beyond  Gravity 

SUDDENLY  a  bright  flash  crossed  our  screens, 
and  from  the  coils  at  Joan's  side  came  a  quick, 
sharp  voice.  I  listened  intently.  Joan  bent  over 
slightly,  dabbing  her  eyes  with  a  tiny  square  of  silk. 
Crisp  and  curt  came  the  words  through  the  coils. 

"Official  government  orders,"  the  voice  said  authori- 
tatively, "All  radios  and  television  receivers  and  broad- 
casters are  ordered  off  the  air  at  once!  Annihiiator 
lost  in  terrific  Rocky  Mountain  up-draft  1  Government 
demands  all  broadcast  and  reception  right-of-ways  at 
once  for  communication  with  the  ship  without  inter- 
ference! Anyone  disregarding  this  official  command 
will  be  dealt  with  accordingly.  Off  the  air  until  further 
notice !" 

With  a  muffled  oath  I  switched  off  the  receivers 
and  turned  toward  Joan.  She  had  gotten  up  and  had 
gone  over  to  sit  upon  the  divan.  Her  face  was  buried 
in  her  arms  and  her  form  was  convulsing  with  sobs.  I 
sat  down  beside  her. 

"Joan,  darling,"  I  said,  struggling  to  swallow  the 
lump  that  had  risen  in  my  throat,  "he'll  come  out  all 
right.    Don't  cry,  Joan!" 

"Oh,  I'm  so  afraid,  daddy,"  she  sobbed,  nestling 
her  head  on  my  shoulder,  "that  Bob  will  never  return 
to  me.  Think  of  the  sadness  in  the  loss  of  all  those 
brave  men  in  the  Annihiiator." 

"I  know,  dear,"  I  said,  forlornly,  "but  we've  got  to 

expect  such  things  we've  got  to  accept  them  like 

genuine  men  and  women.  Aviation  must  progress  and 
develop.  Life  does  not  count  1" 

"Life  counts  with  me,  father,"  she  sobbed,  sternly 
and  seriously.  "I  never  was  more  happy  in  all  my 
life  than  I  was  this  evening  with  Robert  I" 

"Do  you  care  for  Bob,  Joan?"  I  asked,  tilting  her 
tear-dampened  features  up  to  me. 

"I've  always  cared  for  Robert,  daddy!"  she  said 
without  hesitation  and  with  feeling.  "You  know  that 
I've  talked  about  him  always." 

"Bob  Allison  is  a  man,  Joan  dear,"  I  said,  feeling  the 


124 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


lump  in  my  throat  more  than  ever.  I  had  denied 
Joan  nothing  in  all  her  life  but  here  was  one  time 
when  I  could  not  help  her  obtain  her  heart's  desire. 
I  could  not  bring  Robert  Allison  back  to  her.  I  would 
have  gladly  done  so  were  I  capable! 

"He's  like  his  father !  Both  are  good  men  and  true ! 
I'm  glad,  Joan  darling,  that  you  feel  that  way  for 
Bob." 

Suddenly  the  Automaton  Service  System  in  the 
dining  salon  buzzed.  I  patted  Joan  on  the  shoulder 
and  walked  over  to  the  pane!  and  pressed  a  button 
over  the  mail  receiving  tubes.  Instantly  the  latest 
edition  of  the  Aero-Chronicle  shot  out  into  its  recep- 
tion chamber.  I  tore  it  open  and  read  the  headlines 
nervously. 

"U.S^4  F.  Annihilator  Lost  in  Terrestrial  Storm. 
Government  Reports  Ship  Located  Out  of  Globe's 
Orbit.  Racing  at  High  Velocity  Opposite  to 
Earth's  Motion.  Hold  Little  Hope  For  Its  Return 
To  Field  of  Gravity." 

Stunned,  I  sat  down  again  beside  Joan  and  handed 
her  the  paper.  I  turned  my  head  away  to  hide  hot, 
stinging  tears  that  had  welled  up  suddenly  in  my  eyes. 
The  reaction  left  me  in  a  daze  and  it  was  with  an 
effort  that  I  rid  myself  of  it. 

For  long,  torturous  minutes  that  seemed  like  eternal 
ages,  we  sat  there,  Joan  reading  aloud  the  Aero- 
Chronicle's  account  of  the  disaster.  The  lines,  as  she 
read  them,  were  punctuated  with  deep,  long-drawn 
sobs. 

Presently  she  grasped  my  arm  and  shook  it. 
"Look,  daddy!"  she  sobbed.    "Read  this  about 
Robert!" 

I  winced  as  I  accepted  the  paper  and  read  a  short 
paragraph  in  black  agate  type.  Slowly  I  read  the 
paragraph  again  to  escape  nothing. 

"'Lieutenant  Robert  Allison,  chief  pilot  of  the 
craft,  and  son  of  Senator  Allison,  was  seriously  in- 
jured when  the  stabilizing  control  wheel  snapped  back 
and  crushed  several  of  his  ribs,  according  to  radio- 
telepix  reports  received  from  the  Annihilator  by  the 
Government  station  at  Washington.  Lieutenant  Alli- 
son's condition  is  considered  serious  by  attending 
physicians  on  board  the  ship  as  the  result  of  slight 
lung  puncture  caused  by  a  fragment  of  bone.  He  is 
reported  to  be  resting  easily,  however,  in  the 
Annihilator's  hospital  and  arrangements  have  been 
made  for  an  operation.  Physicians  are  prepared  to 
operate  at  any  moment,  the  report  stated!" 

I  cast  the  paper  aside  and  stood  erect.  Joan  sat, 
staring  straight  ahead  through  wet,  unseeing  eyes.  I 
began  a  ceaseless  march  back  and  forth  across  the  living 
floor.  It  was  impossible  for  me  to  sit  still  in  the 
face  of  such  a  sudden  and  unexpected  tragedy. 

Unable  to  withstand  the  torture  of  inactivity,  I 
walked  swiftly  over  to  the  television  receivers  and  sat 
down.  What  was  patriotism  anyhow  when  the  son  of 

my  dearest  friend  our  own  Bob,  lay  hovering 

between  life  and  death  beyond  hope  of  ever  being 
seen  on  this  earth  again?  The  government  would  not 
know  if  I  switched  on  the  current  of  the  receivers  for 
a  glimpse  at  the  Annihilator  and  her  difficulties !  What 
if  it  did  I  I  could  afford  to  pay  the  heavy  fines  exacted 
for  ignoring  government  commands  of  this  order,  and 
surely  I  would  not  interfere  with  official  communica- 
tion. 

Decisively  I  lifted  a  hand  to  the  circuit  switch  anti. 


pressed  it  up.   Instantly  the  screens  glowed,  showing 

two  contacts  the  government  station  at  Washington 

and  the  Annihilator!  Nervously  1  watched  the  huge 
ship,  now  on  even  keel  and  racing  at  terrific  velocity 
across  the  heavens  at  an  elevation  high  above  the  range 
of  ordinary  aircraft.  In  an  instant  the  ship  passed 
out  of  the  screen  only  the  Washington  station  re- 
mained fixed.  I  turned  the  dial  gradually  to  the  left 
and  slowly  the  ship's  rear  aileron  laterals  crept  onto 
the  screen.  I  continued  to  move  the  dials  to  maintain 
the  ship's  presence  on  the  screen.  From  the  reproduc- 
ing coils  came  the  droning  voices  and  I  listened 
intently. 

"Hello,  Washington,"  an  understandable  voice  was 
saying.  "Are  you  still  with  us?" 

"Yes,  Annihilator,  we  are  with  you  I"  came  another 
voice,  louder  and  more  distinct,  in  answer.  I  knew  it 
was  the  Washington  operator  speaking.  I  looked 
around  for  Joan.  She  had  disappeared.  The  Wash- 
ington man  continued. 

"Senator  Allison  inquires  about  his  son,  Lieutenant 
Allison.  How  is  he  getting  along?" 

There  was  a  brief  pause  then  

"Hello,  Washington!"  the  Annihilator  operator 
called.  "Dr.  Banksley  reports  that  Lieutenant  Allison 
is  doing  nicely  after  a  fourth  dimensional  operation. 
Atomic  Argomte  has  been  injected  into  his  blood  and 
he's  coming  along  fine.  But  what  good  " 

"That's  fine,  Annihilator!  Report  to  Commander 
Rankin  that  we  are  doing  all  we  can  to  bring  you 
down.  What?  Your  oxygen  generators  are  out  of 
commission?  Talk  louder,  Annihilator!"  the  Wash- 
ington voice  cut  in. 

A  Ray  of  Hope 

MY  sudden  joy  at  hearing  of  Bob's  improving 
condition  was  short  lived.  I  hesitated  to  call 
Joan  to  tell  her  what  I  had  heard.  I  continued  to 
listen.  The  voice  of  the  Annihilator's  operator  was  be- 
coming weak. 

"Oxygen  generators  are  out  of  commission  due  to 
some  atmospheric  pressure,"  he  said,  weakly.  "Com- 
mander Rankin  reports  that  the  electromagnetising 
units  are  working  perfectly  and  they  arc  trying  to 
obtain  enough  gravitational  force  for  a  drop  through 
the  narrow  pocket  over  San  Diego,  California,  latitude 
30,  longitude  9dc.  We  exhausted  our  reserve  driving 
explosives  bucking  the  up-draft  head  on.  He  says  if 
you  can  get  to  us  about  a  pound  of  concentrated  nitro- 
radium  we  might  be  able  to  force  the  ship  through 
the  atmospheric  stream  into  the  pocket  and  bring  it 
down.  He  believes  we  can  do  it  with  nitro-radium 
in  the  exhaust  system.  But  for  the  love  of  God,  hurry ! 
We'll  be  over  San  Diego  at  five  o'clock  sharp  in  the 
morning!  Rankin  says  if  you  get  it  to  us  through  the 
pocket  we'll  pick  it  up  in  the  nets  as  we  pass  over  it 
and  drop  down  to  earth,  if  we  can,  on  the  next  revolu- 
tion !  If  you  fail  it's  good-bye!" 

There  was  a  buzz  of  conversation  in  the  Washington 
station  as  the  Annihilator  shut  off  her  radio-telepix 
system.  I  thought  I  heard  Senator  Allison's  voice 
and  was  half  tempted  to  make  contact  with  that  station 
but  thought  better  of  it.  I  felt  overjoyed  at  the  un- 
expected developments,  although  I  had  a  guilty  feeling 
for  having  deliberately  disregarded  the  stern  orders 
from  the  government  to  keep  all  radio  and  television 
currents  shut  off.  But  no  matter,  if  my  offense  had 
been  detected,  my  rising  hope  would  be  more  than 
worth  the  cost.  I  switched  off  the  receivers  and  looked 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


125 


for  Joan. 

Scarcely  had  I  rose  from  my  chair  in  front  of  die 
television,  than  the  Automaton  Service  buzzed  again. 
I  fairly  ran  to  it  to  receive  the  latest  edition  of  the 
Aerc-Chronide  containing  up-to-the-minute  develop- 
ments and  official  governmental  bulletins. 

Quickly  I  glanced  over  the  single  page  of  type.  The 
headlines  glared  with  encouraging  hope.  Statements 
by  many  prominent  scientists  hailed  the  possibilities  of 
future  craft  along  similar  principles  of  the  Annihilator. 
Government  officials  openly  complimented  the  ship's 
officers  and  men  for  their  heroic  bravery  in  the  face 
of  certain  destruction.  My  mounting  joy  stopped 
*  suddenly  however,  when  my  eyes  read  swiftly  over 

a  notice  that  the  ship  had  not  yet  been  saved  and 
that  scientists  and  government  officials  ought  to  be 
working  out  ways  and  means  of  bringing  it  to  earth 
instead  of  raving  about  heroism  and  infinitesimal  pos- 
sibilities with  many  valuable  lives  hanging  in  the 
,  balance.  But  nevertheless,  hope  was  plainly  written 
all  over  the  sheet  and  I  called  Joan. 

She  came  into  the  living  room  from  the  door  of 
her  chamber,  her  eyes  dry  but  strangely  blank.  She 
smiled  weakly  and  I  placed  an  arm  around  her 
shoulders.  We  sat  down  on  the  divan  and  I  explained 
to  her  in  detail  just  what  I  had  heard  of  the  official 
communications  between  the  Washington  station  and 
the  AnnihUalor.  Her  face  brightened  perceptibly  as 
I  held  the  latest  issue  of  the  paper  before  her  eyes. 
A  short  story  in  the  center  of  the  page  told  her  that 
Lieutenant  Allison  was  improving  steadily  after  the 
operation  and  radium  injections.  She  gave  a  happy 
little  cry.  > 

"Oh,  I'm  so  glad,  daddy  dear!"  she  said.  "I  had 
given  up  all  hope  for  him!" 

"There's  always  a  silver  lining  behind  all  the  black 
clouds,  Joan."  I  said,  remembering  the  old  saying  of 
earlier  days.  I  glanced  at  my  wrist-chronometer.  Joan 
straightened  abruptly. 

"What  time  is  it,  father?"  she  asked,  impulsively. 

"Why,  darling,  it's  well  past  two  o'clock,  I  replied. 

"Then  we've  time  to  get  to  San  Diego!"  she  ex- 
claimed. We  can  get  there  before  five  to  watch  the 
rescue  work  I" 

I  stared  at  her,  gaping. 

"Why  Joan,  you  are  not  thinking  of  flying  to  San 

Diego  tonight  in  this  terrible  weather,  are  you?" 

I  asked,  incredulously,  but  knowing  that  if  she  had 
*V  '  decided  to  do  that  very  thing,  it  would  be  beyond  my 
ability  to  prevent  her. 

"1  am,  father,"  she  said,  rising  from  the  divan,  "and 
you're  going  with  me!  Run  along  now  and  put  on 
your  flying  togs  I" 

"But,  Joan  ",  I  protested. 

As  usual  I  became  the  victim  again  to  Joan's  im- 
pulsive determination. 

The  flight  from  Denver  to  San  Diego  was  nothing 
short  of  a  nightmare  for  me.  Joan's  little  stream- 
lined aerospeedster  sped  through  the  sky  like  an  arrow, 
its  twin-screws  with  reversal  motion,  spinning  at  a 
terrific  revolution.  Rain  and  sleet  beat  down  upon  the 
tiny,  transparent  aerofoils  of  the  plane  with  such  force 
that  I  could  not  understand  how  such  a  frail-looking 
craft  could  bear  up  under  it  But  Joan  paid"no  atten- 
tion to  the  storm  whirling  around  us.  She  kept  her 
eyes  glued  to  the  instrument  board,  looking  by  turns  at 
the  glowing  compass,  the  altimeter  and  the  barograph. 

I  watched  the  barograph  for  a  moment.  The  mag- 
nesium-tugsten-alumino  propellers  of  the  plane  were 


revolving  faster  than  ever  before  and  were  registering 
16,542  revolutions  per  minute.  The  altimeter  gave 
our  height  at  approximately  21,000  feet.  I  drew 
Joan's  attention  to  the  Velocity-Indicator.  She  smiled 
and  gradually  increased  the  acceleration.  The  tiny 
ship  shot  ahead  with  a  jerk  and  the  Velocity-Indicator 
needle  stopped  at  750  miles  per  hour! 

"Joan  r  I  said,  heatedly.  "You'll  rip  the  plane  to 
pieces  with  that  speed!  Hadn't  you  better  slow  it 
down?  We've  plenty  of  time  to  get  to  San  Diego!" 

"Don't  fear,  daddy,"  she  answered.  'This  little 
speedster  is  capable  of  doing  even  better  than  that  I 
want  to  be  in  San  Diego  with  time  to  spare.  Isn't 
the  moon  pretty  straight  ahead?" 

Far  to  the  west  the  moon  appeared  through  a  bank 
of  gray,  seething  clouds.  Stars  surrounded  it  and  I 
felt  relieved  at  knowing  that  better  weather  lay  ahead 
of  us. 

CHAPTER  IV 
A  Mad  Flight 

GRADUALLY,  as  Joan's  aerospeedster  skudded 
westward,  the  heavens  brightened.  The  plane 
shot  like  a  comet  through  banks  of  murky  clouds 
and  finally  I  scanned  the  earth  through  the  trans- 
parent plates  set  in  the  floor.  We  were  over  the  long, 
white  stretch  of  the  Mojave  Desert.  A  sand-storm 
was  racing  to  the  north  over  the  desert  but  we  were 
high  above  it,  the  little  ship  bathed  in  the  phosphores- 
cent glow  of  the  moon.  Behind  us  a  wall  of  black, 
tumbling  clouds  illuminated  with  frequent  flashes  of 
lightning,  hung  down  from  the  higher  reaches. 

Joan  deliberately  disregarded  all  established  airlanes 
and  drove  the  plane  in  a  straight  line  toward  San 
Diego,  the  whine  of  the  twin-screws  muffled  to  escape 
detection  by  any  Aero-Traffic  Police  who  might  be 
hovering  in  the  air  within  the  borders  of  California. 
Far  ahead  I  could  see,  through  the  clear  moonlit  skies, 
a  faint  glow  that  guided  aircraft  to  the  landing  on  top 
of  the  towering,  obelisk-like  Lindbergh  Aero  Hotel,  in 
San  Diego.  It  glowed  incandescent  hovering  on  the 
edge  of  the  far-off  horizon.  I  could  see  the  glow 
despite  the  fact  that  we  were  yet  an  hour  from  it  I 
glanced  at  the  chronometer  on  the  instrument  board. 
We  had  been  in  the  air  slightly  less  than  an  hour.  By 
computing  the  velocity  of  the  plane  I  concluded  that 
we  would  arrive  in  San  Diego  a  good  half  hour  before 
the  time  the  AnnihUalor  would  pass  over  the  perpetual 
air-pocket  high  above  San  Diego. 

I  scanned  the  space  below  us.  We  were  passing 
over  the  central  level  of  airlanes.  Dozens  of  craft  of 
all  kinds  were  skimming  along  the  usual  routes;  and 
to  me,  at  our  great  elevation,  they  appeared  like  long 
lines  of  eagles  and  gulls,  passing  each  other  in  inde- 
pendent flight.  I  heard  the  roar  of  powerful  screws 
overhead.  I  looked  up  in  time  to  see  a  huge  airliner 
pass  over  us. 

Presently  I  found  myself  silently  speculating  on  the 
seeming  impossibility  of  rescuing  the  AnnihUalor.  My 
mind  likened  the  disaster  with  the  historical  catastrophe 
of  the  submarine  S41  lying  at  the  bottom  of  the 
Atlantic  beyond  the  aid  of  man.  Then  I  began  wonder- 
ing how  the  San  Diego  rescuers  would  be  able  to 
compute  the  exact  moment  required  in  their  attempts 
to  deliver  the  driving-exhaust  fuel  to  the  AnnihUalor 
as  she  shot  over  the  pocket,  just  outside  the  earth's 
atmosphere.  It  seemed  an  utter  impossibility — as  im- 
possible as  it  was  for  deep-sea  divers  to  go  beyond 
their  depth  to  attach  oxygen-tubes  to  the  S41,  and  to 


126 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


raise  it  to  the  surface  before  life  had  fled  from  its 
human  cargo! 

With  those  dire  thoughts  in  my  mind,  I  dozed. 
Joan  was  too  intent  upon  controlling  the  plane  to 
engage  in  conversation  with  me,  and  as  the  aero- 
speedster  sped  toward  its  destination  I  slept,  exhausted 
by  worry  and  grief. 

After  what  seemed  an  exceptionally  brief  period, 
I  was  awakened  by  a  sudden  shriek  from  the  plane's 
right-of-way  siren.  I  sat  bolt  upright,  bewildered. 
Joan  was  smiling  at  me  and  motioned  for  me  to  look 
down  through  the  floor  squares.  It  was  daylight  and 
San  Diego  lay  directly  below  us,  its  tall  flat-topped 
buildings  rising  like  monumental  obelisks.  Hundreds 
of  aircraft  skudded  through  the  air  at  various  eleva- 
tions. Another  day  of  activity  had  begun  over  the 
Southwest's  aero-metropolis!  The  bay  was  dotted 
thickly  with  amphibian  craft  and  the  government  aero- 
drome, with  its  swarms  of  fighting  planes,  stood  out 
in  bas-relief  against  the  green  of  the  area  surround- 
ing it. 

Suddenly  Joan  tilted  the  aerofoil  controls  and  the 
plane  plunged  headlong  toward  the  earth.  At  a  terrific 
speed  it  shot,  plummet-like,  toward  the  landing  atop 
the  Lindbergh  Aero-Hotel.  The  building  seemed  to 
shoot  up  to  meet  us  like  some  gigantic  rocket.  Wind 
whistled  and  whined  along  the  narrow  aerofoils  of 
the  speedster  as  it  sped  in  a  perpendicular  nose-dive, 
toward  earth.  I  sat  in  my  chair  rigid,  struggling  for 
breath.  I  cast  a  frightened  glance  at  Joan.  A  deter- 
mined smile  played  around  her  lips  and  her  eyes 
sparkled  with  the  joy  of  the  thrilling  drop. 

"For  God's  sake,  Joan!"  I  managed  to  say  between 
choking  gulps.  "Remember  that  I'm  an  old  man!" 

"This  will  make  you  young  again,  daddy,"  she 
smiled.  "But  I  promise  not  to  do  it  any  more  with 
you  in  the  plane.  You're  old-fashioned — like  Ralph 
Jordan!" 

"I'd  rather  be  an  old-fashioned  fogey  than  an  up- 
to-date  corpse,  Joan!"  I  said,  as  she  twisted  the 
speedster  out  of  its  nose-dive  and  pointed  its  whining 
airscrews  toward  the  government  aerodrome  across 
San  Diego  Bay. 

"We'll  go  direct  to  the  government  field,  daddy," 
she  said. 

"But  you  can't  make  a  landing  there,  Joan.  You 
know  they  don't  allow  private  craft  to  land  on  the 
reservation,"  I  said. 

"Just  the  same  we  land,  father!"  she  replied,  de- 
terminedly. "I'm  going  to  be  on  the  inside  of  the 
barricades  when  they  begin  to  rescue  the  Annihilator. 
It  will  be  up  to  you  to  get  us  out  of  any  difficulties." 

"I  haven't  any  friends  there,  Joan."  I  complained. 
"I  don't  believe  you  ought  to  " 

"1  don't  care,  daddy!"  she  said.  "We  are  going  to 
drop  there!  Tell  them  you  are  former  Congressman 
Holdon  and  everything  will  be  alright,  I'm  sure." 

"Well,  alright,  Joan.  Go  right  ahead!"  I  said  with 
resignation. 

Begin  Firing 

JOAN  shot  the  tiny  plane  toward  the  government 
aerodrome,  shut  off  the  twin-screws  and  elevated 
the  heliocopter  blades.  The  plane  hovered  over  the 
field  for  an  instant  and  then  dropped  slowly  to  the 
ground  without  so  much  as  a  warning  from  its  siren 
to  tell  of  its  arrival.  It  settled  between  two  gigantic 
combat  ships,  their  big  guns  casting  long  shadows  that 
almost  completely  hid  the  streamlined  speedster  from 


the  rising  sun.  But  the  plane  had  been  observed  on 
landing,  and  before  we  could  get  out  of  the  cabin, 
armed  guards  had  come  up.  I  stepped  out  first,  Joan 
hopped  down  beside  me. 

"I'm  sorry,  sir,"  said  a  debonair  young  naval  officer 
as  I  dropped  down  to  the  ground.  "I  have  an  order 
for  your  arrest,  sir." 

"What  are  the  charges,  son?"  I  asked. 

The  young  guard  smiled, 

"Landing  on  a  government  reservation,  sir,"  he  said. 

I  turned  to  Joan,  grimacing. 

"See  what  you've  done,  young  lady?"  I  said,  severely. 
"You've  led  us  before  a  firing  squad — it  will  serve  you 
right  if  they  shoot  you  at  sundown!" 

"It's  not  that  serious  an  offense,  sir,"  the  guard  said 
with  a  grin.  "We  don't  shoot  beautiful  young  ladies 
at  sundown  or  any  other  time,  sir.  Though  you  will 
have  to  explain  yourselves  to  the  Officer  of  the  Day." 

"Oh,  never  mind  the  O.D.,  son,"  I  said.  "Take  us 
direct  to  the  Officer  in  command.  I  am  Congressman 
Holdon  and  this  is  my  daughter,  Joan.  We'll  explain 
to  the  commander." 

The  officer  gulped  and  his  face  reddened  beneath 
his  tan. 

"Very  well,  sir.  Follow  me,"  he  said,  nodding  to 
the  other  guards  to  disband.  He  turned  on  his  heel 
and  walked  swiftly  toward  the  administration  build- 
ings nearby.  We  followed. 

"This  is  indeed  an  honor,  Mr.  Holdon,"  Commander 
Wilkins  said  after  I  introduced  Joan  and  myself  and 
explained  our  visit.  "But  I  am  very  sorry  that  such 
an  urgent  cause  brought  you  here.  I  have  very  grave 
hopes  for  our  men  recovering  the  Annihilator.  You 
and  Miss  Holdon  are  welcome  to  remain  to  watch  the 
work." 

"Thank  you.  Commander,"  Joan  said,  pleasantly, 
glancing  at  her  wrist  chronometer.  "Isn't  it  time  the 
work  began?" 

"We  begin  firing  at  4:50,  Miss  Holdon,"  Com- 
mander Wilkins  replied.  "And  will  continue  at  brief 
intervals  until  shortly  after  five.  The  Annihilator  is 
expected  to  pass  over  here  at  exactly  4:59." 

"Begin  firing?"  I  asked,  awed.  "Do  you  intend  to 
create  a  downward  vacuum  in  the  outer  atmospheres 
with  high  explosives?" 

"Not  at  all,  Mr.  Holdon,"  the  commander  smiled. 
"Our  largest  anti-aircraft  guns  in  battery  formation, 
are  loaded  with  gravity  nullifying  cobalt-steel  pro- 
jectiles. Each  one  contains  ten  pounds  of  concen- 
trated nitro-radium.  These  projectiles,  insulated  against 
gravity  as  they  are,  will  be  given  greater  impetus  from 
the  earth  by  the  added  force  of  high-explosives  in  the 
guns.  As  the  Annihilator  races  along  the  other  air- 
stream,  magnetized  steel  nets  will  be  hanging  from 
her  belly  to  pick  up  any  of  the  missiles  that  might  be 
in  her  path.  Therefore  our  guns  will  hurl  shells  into 
the  air  through  the  pocket  over  which  she  will  pass, 
five  feet  apart  and  at  intervals  of  30  seconds." 

"Lord!"  I  exclaimed  with  apprehension  and  alarm. 
"Suppose  she  fails  to  pick  up  any  of  the  projectiles? 
Then  what?" 

"Oh,  father!"  Joan  cried.  "They  must  not  fail!" 

Commander  Wilkins  hung  his  head  and  stared  down 
at  the  toe  of  a  restless,  booted  foot.  I  turned  at  the 
sound  of  a  voice  in  back  of  me. 

"Pardon  me,  sir,"  said  a  white-coated  orderly. 
"Radiogram  for  Commander  Wilkins  from  the 
Annihilator.  I  beg  to  report,  sir,  that  the  batteries 
are  ready  to  begin  firing." 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


Commander  Wilkins  dismissed  the  orderly  and  tore 
open  the  envelope  containing  the  radiogram  from  the 
Annihilator.  After  a  second  he  handed  it  to  me  and 
I  read  it  aloud  to  Joan. 

"Annihilator  Will  Pass  Over  San  Diego  Pocket, 
Longitude  9dc,  Latitude  30°  at  Exactly  4:59, 
World  Time.  Everything  Is  Ready  to  Accept 
Your  Deliveries  of  Nitro-Radium.  Eight  Members 
of  the  Crew  and  Staff  Are  Dead  From  Lack  of 
Oxygen.  If  We  Fail  to  Pick  Up  Your  Deliveries 
We  Cannot  Hope  To  Last  More  Than  Six  Hours 
Or  One  More  Revolution  Around  the  Globe. 
Please  Stand  By  For  Results.  We  Are  Coming  I" 

Joan  stifled  a  cry  of  alarm.  I  handed  the  radiogram 
back  to  Commander  Wilkins.  Without  a  word  he 
strode  swiftly  past  us.  We  followed  him  to  the  anti- 
aircraft batteries.  Like  a  long  line  of  towering  steel 
shafts  the  guns  pointed  to  the  heavens  in  a  fan  shape, 
in  readiness  to  hurl  barrages  of  projectiles  into  the 
path  of  the  oncoming  Annihilator. 

Commander  Wilkins  mounted  a  steel  platform  and 
looked  out  over  the  towering  batteries.  I  glanced  at 
my  chronometer  and  looked  overhead.  The  sky  above 
the  airdrome  was  entirely  void  of  any  aircraft.  High 
up,  in  the  higher  levels,  a  great  white  cloud  floated 
lazily  across  the  sky.  Over  the  city  of  San  Diego 
itself,  their  heliocopters  maintaining  perfect  balance, 
rested  thousands  of  aircraft,  their  occupants  intent 
upon  watching  developments  in  the  rescue  work  of 
the  great  Annihilator.  Joan  clung  to  my  arm,  tightly, 
as  we  stood  some  distance  away  from  the  batteries. 

SUDDENLY  the  batteries  roared  as  one  with  such 
terrific  explosion  that  the  earth  rocked  and 
trembled.  The  concussion  lifted  us  from  the  ground 
and  set  me  down  with  a  thump,  Joan  sprawled  across 
my  legs.  I  shot  a  rapid  glance  skyward.  The  heavens 
were  depthless.  But  a  gradually  vanishing  series  of 
whining  notes  told  me  that  the  first  discharge  of  fuel 
for  the  Annihilator  was  on  its  way.  I  pulled  Joan 
down  as  she  attempted  to  rise,  and  clapped  my  hands 
over  my  ears.  Again  and  again  the  batteries  roared 
at  intervals  of  seconds.  Joan  hid  her  face  against  my 
breast,  sobbing.  I  looked  over  toward  the  platform. 
Commander  Wilkins  was  standing  close  to  a  waist- 
high  railing,  clutching  it  tightly.  Other  men  sat  on 
the  floor  of  the  platform.   He  alone  was  standing. 

Hope  Gone! 

EVENTUALLY  the  firing  ceased  and  I  helped 
Joan  to  her  feet.  Commander  Wilkins,  followed 
by  a  knot  of  gesturing  officers  and  civilians,  was 
walking  toward  us.  His  face  was  grave  as  he  came 
up  and  saluted  politely. 

"I  should  have  warned  you  and  your  daughter,  Mr. 
Holdon,"  he  said,  "that  the  concussion  would  knock 
you  down.  I  am  happy  to  see  that  you  were  not 
injured." 

"That's  all  right,  Commander,"  I  said.  "I  couldn't 
have  kept  Joan  away." 

"Do  you  think  you  will  have  any  success,  Com- 
mander?" Joan  asked,  apprehensively. 

"I  can  only  hope  for  the  best,  Miss  Holdon,"  he 
said. 

Joan  smiled  with  rising  spirits. 
"We  are  going  to  watch  the  Annihilator  on  the 
television  screen,  would  you  like  to  join  us?"  Com- 


mander Wilkins  continued.  Joan  nodded.  He  turned 
to  the  knot  of  waiting  men  standing  a  short  distance 
away.  "Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "This  is  Miss  Holdon 
and  her  father,  former  Congressman  Holdon.  They 
will  watch  the  Annihilator  with  us." 

With  that  informal  introduction  we  accompanied  the 
group  to  the  Radio-Television  Headquarters.  As  we 
strode  toward  the  building  I  felt  a  hand  touch  my 
shoulder.  I  turned  my  head  and  observed  the  serious, 
set  features  of  Professor  Stilsen,  Director  of  Astro- 
nomical Research  of  the  Washington  University. 

"Why  Professor  Stilsen,"  I  greeted  him,  "I  didn't 
recognize  you  in  the  group!  What  are  you  doing 
here?" 

"Have  been  vacationing  up  at  La  Jolla,  Mr.  Holdon," 
he  said.  "The  government  radioed  me  early  this  morn- 
ing to  come  down  here  and  help  out  as  much  as  I 
could  in  gravitational  and  atmospheric  details.  I'm 
glad  to  see  you,  Mr.  Holdon  1" 

"Thank  you,  Professor,"  I  said.  "It  was  nice  of 
you  to  help  out.  Of  course  you  know  that  Senator 
Allison's  son  is  on  board  the  Annihilator.  He  is  a 
very  close  friend  of  the  family.  We  flew  over  from 
Denver  this  morning  to  watch  the  rescue  work.  What 
do  you  think  about  it?" 

''Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  I'm  a  little  doubtful,"  he 
replied,  shaking  his  head  seriously.  "It  is  and  has 
been  my  opinion  that  when  the  projectiles  reach  the 
same  atmospheric  stream  that  holds  the  Annihilator, 
they  will  either  continue  on  through  it  or  be  swept 
along  the  same  course  as  the  ship.  There  is  a  slight 
chance  that  the  Annihilator  will  pick  up  one  of  the 
shells,  providing  it  passes  over  the  pocket  at  precisely 
the  same  second  the  projectile  reached  the  air-stream. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  projectiles  might  strike  the 
ship  and  damage  it." 

Hardly  three  minutes  had  passed  after  the  firing 
of  the  last  salvo  from  the  batteries,  before  we  arrived 
at  the  Radio-Television  Headquarters.  Commander 
Wilkins  ushered  us  into  the  rather  large  room  con- 
taining the  powerful  radio-telepix  apparatus.  The  room 
beyond  the  reception  and  broadcast  panels  was  some- 
thing like"  a  small  theatre  with  a  fairly  large  screen 
on  the  wall  in  front  of  several  rows  of  chairs.  We 
sat  down,  Joan  on  one  sidcQf  me  and  Professor 
Stilsen  on  the  other.  Around  us  sat  the  remainder 
of  the  group,  silent  and  tense.  Commander  Wiu!ins 
remained  near  the  panels  and  its  operators. 

During  the  few  seconds  that  followed,  the  silence 
in  the  room  was  oppressive.  I  watched  Joan.  She 
sat  in  stony  immobility,  her  eyes  boring  into  the  blank, 
dead  screen.  Professor  Stilsen  likewise  stared  at  the 
screen,  his  lips  twitching  nervously  and  beads  of  per- 
spiration standing  out  on  his  brow. 

Presently  the  reproductive  coils  somewhere  near  the 
panels  in  back  of  us  sputtered.  A  dim  outline  ap- 
peared on  the  screen  before  us.  Joan  grasped  my  arm 
tensely.  Gradually  the  glistening  body  of  the 
Annihilator  loomed  and  quickly  passed  out  of  sight. 
The  operators  twisted  the  television  dial-controls  and 
slowly  the  leviathan  moved  back  into  the  oblong  square 
in  front  of  us.  Professor  Stilsen  let  loose  a  groan 
and  pointed  with  shaking  hand  along  the  tail  of  the 
huge  ship.  The  aileron  laterals  and  elevating  aero- 
foils had  been  torn  from  their  sockets  and  were  trail- 
ing along  behind  the  craft  at  a  distance  that,  on  the 
screen,  appeared  to  be  several  feet! 

"My  God  I"  the  Professor  shouted  almost  in  a 
frenzy.  "They're  done!  The  controlling  aileron  and 


128 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


aerofoils  have  been  shot  away!  One  of  our  projectiles 
must  have  gone  through  the  tail  of  the  ship  I" 

Joan  screamed  and  suddenly  went  limp.  An  officer 
sitting  at  her  side  got  up  and  returned  with  a  glass 
of  water.  I  chafed  her  hands  automatically,  unable  to 
tear  my  eyes  from  the  screen.  The  Annihilator  was 
racing  across  the  sky  like  a  comet,  a  mass  of  wreckage 
that  had  been  her  aileron  laterals,  following  her! 
Around  her,  traveling  at  precisely  the  same  velocity, 
were  several  tiny  shapes  that  glistened  under  the  glare 
of  the  sun.  Some  of  the  projectiles  hurled  into  the  air 
a  few  moments  before  had  been  wafted  into  the  atmos- 
pheric stream  circling  the  earth !  There  they  remained 
near  the  Annihilator  and  yet  too  far  away  to  be  of  any 
help  to  the  distressed  leviathan! 

I  felt  Joan's  hands  quiver.  I  glanced  at  her  quickly. 
She  was  reviving.  I  looked  again  at  the  screen.  In 
the  instant  the  scene  had  changed  and  in  place  of  the 
Annihilator1  s  surface,  the  craft's  control  cabin  con- 
fronted us.  God,  what  a  sight !  Men  and  officers  alike, 
naked  except  for  their  trousers,  sprawled  on  the 
gyroscopic  floor!  They  tore  at  their  throats  with 
frenzied  hands.  Several  still,  immobile  forms  lay  at 
one  side  of  the  deck,  hands  across  their  rigid  breasts, 
embraced  by  death! 

The  reproductive  coils  howled  suddenly  and  the 
operators  throttled  down  the  volume.  From  behind 
us  came  words  that  were  punctuated  with  deep  groans 
and  wheezing  coughs.  We  sat  tense  in  our  chairs. 
Joan's  face  was  hidden  behind  my  back  to  shut  from 
her  eyes  the  terrible  sufferings  of  the  dying  men  in 
the  Annihilator. 

"H-h-ello,  San  Diego,"  came  the  rasping  words 
from  the  Annihilator's  choking  operator. 

"We've  got  you,  Annihilator!"  came  Commander 
Wilkins'  voice  from  behind  in  answer.  "What's  wrong, 
Annihilator?" 

"We're  done  finished!"  the  ship's  operator  said 

in  a  dry,  weakening  voice  that  was  filled  with  soul- 
searing  sadness  but  void  of  fear.  "One  of  your  shells 
tore  away  the  aileron  laterals  and  elevating  aerofoils. 
We  have  no  control  over  the  Annihilator!  We  picked 
up  two  of  your  projectiles  but  we  cannot  make  use  of 
them  because  your  shell  also  destroyed  the  exhausts 
of  the  driving  system !  There's  a  gaping  hole  under 
the  tail  stream  lines  and  what  oxygen  we  had  in  the 
compartments  is  escaping.  We  can't  last  for  another 
six  hours,  San  Diego!  Thanks  for  the  nitro-radium. 
You  did  your  level  best.  I  guess  its  good-bye  to 
every  " 

"Wait  a  minute,  Annihilator!  Commander  Wilkins' 
sharp,  crisp  voice  shot  through  the  speaking  tubes  be- 
hind us.  "Don't  give  up  like  that!  Where's  Com- 
mander Rankin?  This  is  Commander  Wilkins  speaking. 
I  want  to  talk  with  him !" 

"Don't  give  up?"  the  Annihilator's  operator  said 
scornfully.  Then  his  voice  came  to  us  in  shrill, 
hysterical  laughter.  Presently  he  seemed  to  get  con- 
trol of  his  reasoning.  "Rankin,  sir?  I  am  sorry  to 
report,  Sir,  that  Commander  Rankin  has  been  uncon- 
scious for  an  hour.  I'll  send  for  Lieutenant  David — " 

Before  the  Annihilator  operator  could  finish,  our 
reproductive  coils  sputtered  and  went  dead !  The  screen 
before  us  became  suddenly  blank. 

"Hello,  Annihilator!"  Commander  Wilkins  called 
frantically  into  the  speaking  tubes.  "What's  wrong, 
Annihilator f  We've  lost  you !" 

The  screen  glowed  for  an  instant  and  went  blank 
again.  I  sat  stunned  at  a  few  broken  words  that  had 


come  in  through  our  reproductive  coils,  during  the 
instant  flash.  The  Annihilator's  radio-television  units 
had  suddenly  ceased  to  function  her  electrical  cur- 
rent exhausted!  The  operator  had  yelled  at  the  top 
of  his  weakened  lungs  his  final  good-bye  to  the  earth 
he  had  loved  so  dearly.  _  Commander  Wilkins  cursed 
softly.  Joan's  form  convulsed  in  spasmodic  jerks. 

"That's  the  end!"  I  said  aloud,  dropping  my  chin 
on  my  chest  forlornly.  Professor  Stilsen's  hand  found 
mine  and  gave  it  an  abrupt  squeeze.  I  nodded,  unable 
to  lift  my  head. 

CHAPTER  V 
A  Mad  Plan 

FOR  what  seemed  ages  we  sat  there.  The  room 
was  silent  except  for  the  sound  of  Joan's  con- 
vulsive sobs  and  the  heavy  breathing  of  the 
others.  I  looked  sideways  at  Professor  Stilsen.  His 
features  were  working  oddly  and  his  eyes  glittered. 
Suddenly  he  arose,  the  scraping  of  his  chair  against 
the  floor  broke  the  stillness. 

"By  God !"  he  said,  pounding  his  hands  together  in 
quick,  steady  claps.    "That's  not  the  end!  We  are 
going  to  save  those  men !" 
Commander  Wilkins  eyed  him  with  growing  interest. 
"Do  it.  Professor  Stilsen,"  he  said,  tensely,  "and  you 
will  have  the  eternal  gratitude  of  mankind !" 

"To  hell  with  gratitude,  Commander!"  he  shouted, 
almost  running  toward  the  officer.  "If  the  govern- 
ment would  listen  a  little  more  attentively  to  science 
this  disaster  would  not  have  occurred  I" 

"What  is  your  plan,  Professor?"  several  officers 
asked  simultaneously  and  eagerly. 

"You  wouldn't  understand!"  he  shouted  hotly.  "I 
told  you  in  the  first  place  that  there  was  danger  of 
destroying  the  AnnihUator  with  your  projectiles.  You 
wouldn't  listen  to  me.   But  here's  my  plan." 

Eagerly  and  intently  the  entire  room  gave  its  atten- 
tion to  Professor  Stilsen.  I  placed  an  arm  around 
Joan  as  I  watched  his  perspiring  features.  He 
continued. 

"That  operator  said  they  couldn't  last  longer  than 
six  more  hours!  Evidently  they  have  enough  oxygen 
for  some  of  them  to  survive  that  long.  In  six  hours 
the  Annihilator  will  pass  over  this  aerodrome  again! 
I  know  that  for  certain !  With  the  earth  rotating  at  a 
velocity  of  25,000  miles  every  twenty-four  hours  and 
the  outer  atmospheric  stream  racing  in  reverse  of  the 
earth's  motion  at  twice  the  velocity  of  the  earth,  only 
six  hours  are  required  for  the  Annihilator  to  make  the 
complete  revolution !  The  very  fact  that  it  passes 
directly  overhead  is  a  phenomenon  exactly  in  our 
favor.  We've  got  to  make  use  of  it  now,  for  at  the 
next  rotation  of  the  earth  the  outer  atmospheric  stream 
will  shift  its  course  and  the  Annihilator  will  be  gone 
forever ! 

"Listen  to  me !  Laugh  later  if  you  want  to  but  listen 
to  me  now !  Commander  Wilkins,  you  will  order  your 
ground  shops  to  begin  work  immediately  on  con- 
structing twenty-four  huge  cobalt-steel,  kettle-shaped 
drums.  I  will  give  you  exact  specifications.  Your 
mechanics  will  fit  onto  the  open  end  of  each  of  these 
drums,  a  six-inch  thick,  circular  plate  of  steel !  Socket- 
clamps  will  be  attached  to  the  rounded  bottoms  of  the 
cobalt-steel  drums  to  accommodate  stationary  cables  and 
high-tension  electrical  lines!  Get  twenty-four  large 
Pinkerton  winches  each  complete  with  cable  enough 
to  reach  a  distance  of  85,000  feet.  Weld  cables  to- 
gether if  necessary.    By  my  plans  and  figures  the 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


129 


cables  need  not  be  more  than  an  inch  thick. 

"We  will  attach  these  cables  to  the  socket-clamps. 
By  electro-magnetizing  the  cobalt-steel  drums  you  will 
insulate  against  gravitational  force  and  they  will 
voluntarily  rise  into  the  air,  held  captive  to  the 
anchored  winches.  The  electrical  energy  will  pass 
through  the  steel  plate  and  produce  a  high  degree  of 
magnetism,  forming  a  powerful  electro-magnet.  All 
twenty-four  of  the  magnetic  drums  will  be  sent  up  to 
an  elevation  slightly  below  the  atmospheric  stream  in 
which  the  Annihilator  is  held  captive.  I  have  figured 
that  the  magnetism  in  the  twenty-four  drums  will 
exceed  whatever  gravity  insulation  that  might  exist  in 
the  ship.  Consequently  it  will  be  attracted  to  the 
electro-magnets  and  be  drawn  down  through  the  pocket 
into  the  earth's  heavier  atmospheres.  By  slowly  re- 
ducing the  electro-magnetism  from  the  drums,  leaving 
the  current  flowing  through  the  steel  plates,  they  can 
be  lowered  with  the  Annihilator  resting  on  them  under 
the  influence  of  magnetic  attraction.  We  will  anchor 
out  the  ground  winches  at  fifty  feet  apart,  and  permit 
the  drums  to  rise  directly  in  the  path  of  the  ship !  I 
feel  certain  that  this  method  will  bring  successful  re- 
sults by  drawing  it  back  into  the  earth's  orbit! 

"That  is  my  plan,  gentlemen,  and  if  you  agree  with 
me  let  us  get  started  at  oncel  We  have  but  five  hours 
to  finish  all  ground  work  and  thirty  minutes  to  raise 
the  magnetic  drums  1" 

Immediately  the  Radio  -  Television  Headquarters 
quaked  with  resounding  applause.  I  glanced  at  Joan. 
Her  face  was  brightening.  I  felt  somewhat  relieved. 
Surely  this  plan,  formulated  in  the  active  brain  of 
Professor  Stilsen  while  he  watched  the  terrible  scenes 
on  the  television  screen,  would  result  in  the  rescue  of 

the  Annihilator  and  its  men  if  any  still  lived 

when  it  reached  again  the  pocket  over  the  airdrome. 
Professor  Stilsen  held  up  his  hand  impatiently  to 
stave  the  continued  plaudits  of  those  in  the  room. 

"Gentlemen!  Gentlemen  I"  he  shouted.  "I  am  not 
entitled  to  your  plaudits  or  praise!  Save  it  for  those 
brave  men  in  the  Annihilator  and  let  us  begin  work 
at  once.  We  need  every  single  second !" 

Commander  Wilkins  held  out  his  hand.  Professor 
Stilsen  grasped  it  in  a  firm  grip. 

"Professor  Stilsen,"  he  said  with  exhilaration,  "We 
will  do  exactly  as  you  bid!  Everything  under  my 
command  is  at  your  service.  We  have  the  men  and 
the  facilities  necessary  to  carry  out  your  plans,  I  con- 
gratulate you  for  the  most  feasible  plan  offered.  My 
command  is  yours!" 

"I  couldn't  do  anything  without  your  help,  Com- 
mander," the  Professor  said,  modestly.  "Let  us  pro- 
ceed with  the  work  before  us!" 

Immediately  Commander  Wilkins  spun  on  his  heel 
and  issued  crisp  orders  to  his  subordinates  in  the  room 
and  then  excused  himself  to  the  civilians.  Professor 
Stilsen  followed  him  out  of  the  room.  The  others, 
representing  various  papers,  remained  in  discussion 
while  Joan  and  I  made  a  hasty  retreat.  With  five 
hours  hanging  on  our  heads,  we  had  no  desire  to  loaf 
around  the  airdrome  in  the  agony  of  dragging  minutes. 

The  airdrome  had  suddenly  become  a  scene  of  ceas- 
less  activity  as  we  walked  from  the  Radio-Television 
Headquarters  toward  our  plane  nestling  under  the 
shadows  of  the  big  guns  mounted  on  the  huge,  combat 
cruisers.  Men  and  officers  were  hurrying  hither  and 
thither,  clearing  the  field  or  executing  the  crisp  orders 
of  Commander  Wilkins.  Great  ships  were  being  taxied 
off  the  field  and  as  we  arrived  at  Joan's  little  speedster 


and  entered  its  comfortable  cabin,  the  triple  screws 
of  the  big  combat  cruisers  beside  us  roared.  They 
raced  across  the  landing  toward  their  hangers. 

Joan  shot  her  aerospeedster  into  the  air  vertically 
and  headed  its  screws  across  the  bay.  Within  a  minute 
we  dropped  down  on  the  landing  on  top  of  the  Lind- 
bergh Aero-Hotel,  registered  and  went  to  the  seclusion 
of  our  suite. 

The  Last  Effort 

NEEDLESS  for  me  to  tell  what  transpired  be- 
tween us  at  the  Aero-Hotel.  The  minutes  dragged 
slowly  and  we  were  at  the  point  of  nervous  exhaustion 
when  finally  the  hands  on  my  chronometer  indicated 
that  the  time  had  arrived  for  the  rising  of  the  magnetic 
drums  over  the  airdrome.  Quickly  we  donned  our 
helmets  and  jackets  and  were  soon  up  on  the  landing. 
Joan's  plane  had  been  hauled  into  a  hangar  and  she 
stamped  a  foot  impatiently  as  it  was  being  brought 
out  for  flight. 

Joan  had  long  since  recovered  control  of  herself 
although  her  face  bore  an  expression  of  pallid  rigidity. 
She  had  offered  silent  prayers  for  the  man  she  loved 
since  childhood,  hovering  between  life  and  death  in 
the  Annihilator.  That  he  would  still  be  living  if  the 
leviathan  was  actually  brought  to  earth,  was  im- 
probable. From  her  expression  I  presumed  that  she 
had  resigned  him  to  whatever  fate  held  in  store  for 
him.  With  the  choking  words  of  the  Annihilator's 
operator  ringing  in  my  ears,  I  could  not  see  how  Bob 
Allison,  injured  as  he  was,  could  survive  without  suf- 
ficient oxygen  to  maintain  life  in  his  already  weakened 
lungs.  And  six  hours  is  a  very  long  time  to  live 
under  those. circumstances,  I  thought. 

Presently  Joan  reversed  the  screws  of  her  speedster 
and  it  halted  over  the  airdrome  with  heliocopter  blades 
whirling  for  a  gradual  descent.  The  little  plane  settled 
on  the  vacant  field  and  we  stepped  out.  A  figure 
came  running  toward  us  with  a  warning  to  move  the 
plane  from  the  landing.  Joan  entered  it  again  and 
taxied  it  into  position  near  massed  government  ships 
at  the  end  of  the  field.  I  was  walking  across  the 
landing  under  the  guidance  of  the  guard  when  Joan 
came  up  to  us,  panting.  She  had  ran  across  the  field 
and  the  effort  had  returned  some  of  the  color  to  her 
cheeks. 

As  we  neared  a  row  of  low,  white  buildings  at  the 
side  of  the  landing  I  noted  that  they  were  strangely 
silent.  The  shriek  and  groan  of  machinery  that  was 
creating  an  uproar  when  we  had  departed  for  the  hotel, 
had  died  down.  The  very  atmosphere  seemed  tense. 
Eventually  we  entered  the  buildings  and  the  guard 
led  us  at  once  to  Commander  Wilkins.  He  was  holding 
a  conference  with  Professor  Stilsen  and  nodded  as 
we  came  up  to  him.  Professor  Stilsen's  face  was 
grimy  with  perspiration  and  dust.  The  professor  ex- 
cused himself  and  walked  away  swiftly.  Commander 
Wilkins  turned  nervously.  Joan  grasped  his  coat 
sleeve. 

"How  are  you  progressing,  Commander?"  she  asked, 
tensely. 
He  smiled  assuringly. 

"Excellent,  Miss  Holdon,"  he  said,  his  voice  filled 
with  excitement.  "We  had  a  little  delay  with  the  cables 
but  everything  is  shipshape  now.  In  a  moment  we 
will  be  ready  to  elevate  the  magnetic  drums.  The 
winches  are  anchored  on  the  other  side  of  the  landing 
so  as  to  pull  the  Annihilator  down  against  the  air- 
currents,  and  the  drums  are  being  welded  to  the  cables. 


130 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


We've  worked  ceaslessly  with  this  job,  Miss  Holdon, 
and  I  feel  confident  that  Professor  Stilsen's  plan  for 
the  rescue  of  the  AnnihUator  will  work  out  satis- 
factorily." 

"That's  great,  Commander  !"  I  said,  enthusiastically. 
"The  whole  world  will  appreciate  your  efforts  and  I'm 
certain  that  the  government  will,  too!" 

"As  long  as  we  succeed,  and  Professor  Stilsen  gets 
his  due  rewards,  I  will  be  content,  Mr.  Holdon,"  he 
replied.  "That  Professor  Stilsen  is  a  veritable  moun- 
tain of  energy  and  knowledge!  It  is  a  shame  that 
men  like  him  are  not  in  command  of  the  government's 
powers  instead  of  us  who  know  practically  nothing 
but  militarism!" 

There  came  suddenly  from  the  outside,  a  shrill  siren 
blast.  Joan  jumped  nervously.  I  looked  questioningly 
at  Commander  Wilkins. 

"It  is  time!  he  said.  "Will  you  join  me  on  the 
observation  platform?" 

Before  we  reached  the  observation  platform, 
Professor  Stilsen  had  mounted  it  and  was  standing 
by  the  rail.  A  long  table-like  bench  had  been  built 
on  one  side  of  the  platform  for  newspaper  representa- 
tives. They  sat  in  a  line,  radiophones  on  their  ears, 
talking  steadily  into  individual  speaking  tubes  that 
carried  their  words  direct  to  the  offices  of  their  re- 
spective sheets,  and  automatically  set  the  type  from 
the  vibration  of  their  voices.  The  drone  of  their  voices 
mingled  together  in  a  jumbled,  unintelligable  cacaphony 
of  unamalgamated  sounds. 

I  helped  Joan  up  the  platform  steps.  Commander 
Wilkins  followed  close  behind.  Suddenly  there  came 
a  distant  hissing  sound.  Professor  Stilsen  had 
signaled  for  the  high-tension  electrical  current  to  be 
turned  into  the  magnetic  drums.  I  hurried  Joan  to 
the  top  of  the  platform.  On  the  far  side  of  the 
landing  stood  a  row  of  huge  winches,  their  cables  taut 
and  rising  skyward  rigidly.  I  looked  up.  High  over- 
head at  an  equal  elevation  floated  a  row  of  odd  look- 
ing objects  held  captive  by  the  taut  cables.  Even  under 
the  brilliance  of  the  sun,  they  gave  off  a  distinctly 
discernible  glow.  The  magnetic-drums  were  in  the 
air  at  last  1 

I  glanced  at  Professor  Stilsen.  His  grimy  features 
were  set.  He  held  up  an  arm  for  an  instant  and  then 
brought  it  down  rapidly.  Instantly  there  came  a  high- 
pitched  shriek  from  the  spinning  winches,  and  the 
gravity  nullifying  magnetic  drums  were  on  their  way 
skyward !  I  held  Joan  close  to  me  as  we  watched  the 
rising  drums.  They  gradually  disappeared  into  the 
fathomless  skies  and  we  could  see  them  no  more.  We 
turned  to  Professor  Stilsen.  He  stood  tensely  at  the 
rail,  staring  into  a  small  glowing  screen  in  front  of 
him  that  told  clearly  the  upward  progress  of  the  drums. 
Commander  Wilkins  was  at  his  side.  Presently  he 
gave  another  signal  and  the  shrieking  of  the  winches 
died  down  to  a  low  moan  and  finally  became  quiet  and 
still,  their  cables  taut  and  rigidly  motionless.  The 
voices  at  the  speaking  tubes  on  the  table-like  bench 
droned  excitedly. 

Suddenly  there  came  a  loud  snapping  roar  from 
the  line  of  winches.  Professor  Stilsen  groaned.  One 
of  the  cables  had  parted  several  feet  from  the  spindle 
and  its  frayed  end,  in  contact  with  the  high-tension 
wiring  was  shooting  vivid,  blue  sparks  into  the  ground. 
The  winch  glowed  for  an  instant  and  crumpled  under 
the  force  of  the  short  circuited  current.  Joan  covered 
her  eyes  as  several  limp  forms  were  carried  away  from 
the  spot. 


"I've  prepared  against  that,"  Professor  Stilsen 
volunteered.  "Our  doctors  will  probably  bring  them 
to  shortly." 

CHAPTER  VI 
Fulled  Toward  Earth 

COMMANDER  Wilkins  patted  him  gently  on 
the  shoulder.  I  glanced  at  my  chronometer 
nervously,  and  toyed  with  a  wisp  of  curling 
brown  hair  that  hung  from  underneath  Joan's  helmet. 
She  clung  to  me  pathetically,  her  eyes  on  Professor 
Stilsen's  broad  back  as  though  watching  for  some 
move  that  would  indicate  the  presence  overhead  of 
the  AnnihUator.  I  too,  found  myself  watching  the 
tense  form  of  the  professor.  Suddenly  he  stiffened 
and  bent  over  sharply  to  stare  into  the  screen  in  front 
of  him. 

"There  she  comes!"  he  shouted  exultantly.  "Her 
nose  is  dipped  and  she's  standing  still  above  the  line 
of  drums !  The  magnets  are  fighting  the  atmospheric 
stream  and  the  AnnihUator  is  being  attracted  down 
to  them  P' 

With  a  shout  of  joy  he  broke  away  from  the  rail 
and  danced  wildly  on  the  platform.  Commander 
Wilkins  continued  to  watch  the  screen  as  a  cheer  arose 
from  the  men  stationed  at  the  winches.  Joan  threw 
her  arms  around  my  neck  and  hugged  me  tightly.  I 
felt  a  feeling  of  exhilaration  surge  through  me  and  I 
offered  a  silent  prayer  that  fate  had  not  been  too 
severe  on  the  brave  men  inside  the  AnnihUator. 

I  looked  again  at  Professor  Stilsen.  He  was  stand- 
ing at  the  screen  once  more,  his  hands  gripped  firmly 
on  the  rail. 

"She's  resting  horizontally  on  the  drums!"  he  cried. 
"One  more  second  for  the  magnetic  attraction  to 
circulate  through  the  ship  and  we  will  haul  her  down !" 

He  raised  a  hand  over  his  head  in  preparation  for 
the  signal  that  would  start  the  uniformly  controlled 
winches  rewinding  the  cables. 

"We'll  retract  the  electric-magnetism  from  the 
cobalt-steel  of  the  drums,"  he  said  as  if  to  himself, 
slowly  lowering  his  hand.  "They  will  fall  gradually 
of  their  own  volition,  the  attraction  in  the  plating  will 
captivate  the  magnetic  body  of  the  AnnihUator  and  we 
will  wind  in  the  cables." 

Despite  the  tremendous  weight  of  the  cables,  the 
drums  and  the  huge  leviathan  of  the  air  resting  on 
them,  the  winches  rewound  the  lines  without  apparent 
effort.  They  hummed  softly  as  the  incoming  cables 
wound  around  the  huge  spindles.  High  in  the  air 
hung  a  speck  so  infinitesimally  small  that  my  eyes 
could  scarcely  observe  it.  There  came  the  roar  of  a 
million  voices  from  across  the  bay  and  suddenly  the 
atmosphere  was  torn  with  the  shrieking  of  sirens  and 
the  shrill  blasts  of  whistles.    The  AnnUiUator  had 

been  seen  she  was  being  hauled  to  earth  I  The 

voices  of  the  news  reporters  continued  their  ceas- 
less  droning  as  they  acquainted  the  world  with  the 
facts  as  they  stood.  Professor  Stilsen  sat  down  on  a 
stool  in  front  of  the  screen,  mopping  his  brow  with 
trembling  hand. 

Gradually  the  AnnihUator  was  drawn  earthward.  It 
loomed  in  the  heavens  like  a  great  bird  suddenly 
stricken  in  flight.  Hundreds  of  aircraft  hovered  over 
it  like  swarms  of  locusts  attacking  an  eagle.  They 
followed  it  at  a  distance  as  it  came  slowly  down. 

Without  warning  and  with  a  suddenness  that  caused 
my  breath  to  cease,  the  AnnihUator  literally  tore  itself 
free  from  the  magnetic-drums  and  leaped  back  into 


BEYOND  GRAVITY 


131 


the  sky  I  It  shot  heavenward,  ploughing  through  a 
swarm  of  aircraft  like  an  unleashed  demon.  The 
magnetic  drums  hung  in  position,  deserted.  I  stood 
stricken,  unable  to  tear  my  eyes  from  the  terrible 
scene.  Joan  screamed,  and  at  the  sound  of  her  voice 
I  withdrew  my  eyes  from  the  rapidly  rising  AtinihUator 
and  tumbling  wreckage.  I  expected  to  see  Professor 
Stilsen  sitting  on  the  stool,  with  his  head  buried  in  his 
hands.  Instead  he  was  once  again  at  the  rail,  waving 
a  hand  frantically  at  the  men  lined  along  the  winches. 
Instantly  there  came  a  rapidly  mounting  shriek  as  the 
cables  spun  from  the  spindles. 

Professor  Stilsen  grasped  a  sparking  tube  that  was 
lying  beside  the  screen  and  yelled  into  it.  I  looked 
overhead.  Rising  rapidly  and  gradually  decreasing  the 
distance  between  them  and  the  Annihilator,  the 
magnetic-drums  were  shooting  into  the  higher  reaches 
at  a  terrific  velocity.  They  glowed  like  green  balls 
of  fire  under  an  increase  of  electrical  current. 
Professor  Stilsen  yelled  again  into  the  speaking  tubes 
and  the  drums  vomited  green  sparks  under  additional 
current  that  was  meant  to  hold  the  Annihilator  at  all 
costs  should  they  make  the  magnetic  contact  again. 

Slowly,  very  slowly  the  Annihilator  checked  its  up- 
ward rise  and  rapidly  the  drums  shot  up  under  it. 
The  huge  leviathan  finally  floated  motionless  and  then 
began  a  downward  descent  to  meet  the  attraction  of 
the  magnetic  drums.  There  came  another  thundering 
roar  of  voices  from  across  the  bay,  and  this  time  the 
Annihilator  was  alone  no  swarms  of  aircraft  fol- 
lowed her  as  she  was  being  drawn  slowly  but  surely 
earthward. 

I  turned  to  Commander  Wilkins  who  was  standing 
beside  Joan,  watching  intently  the  downward  course 
of  the  huge  ship.  . 

"They  are  either  dead  or  unconscious  from  lack  of 
oxygen,  Miss  Holdon,"  the  Commander  was  saying 
"Otherwise  she  would  not  have  torn  herself  loose  from 
the  drums." 

"What  has  that  to  do  with  it?"  Joan  said,  drying 
her  tears. 

"Well  you  see,"  he  answered,  "the  ship's  electric- 
magnetizing  units  must  have  been  working  perfectly, 
sending  constant  current  through  the  cobalt-steel  hull, 
creating  an  insulation  against  gravity.  They  could 
not  have  known  they  were  over  the  pocket  or  did  not 
care  for  that  matter,  otherwise  they  would  have  shut 
off  the  units  in  consideration  of  the  possibility  of  un- 
expectedly dropping  through  it  into  the  earth's  heavier 
atmosphere.  Had  the  units  been  shut  off  the 
Annihilator  would  not  have  shot  upward.  It  would 
have  crashed  to  earth." 

"I  understand,  Commander,"  Joan  said.  "If  the 
electro-magnetizing  units  had  not  been  functioning,  the 
ship  would  not  have  broken  loose.  The  magnetic 
drums  would  have  held  it." 

'That's  rigjit,  Miss  Holdon,"  he  replied,  looking  up. 

"Do  you  really  believe  they  are  dead,  Commander?" 
she  asked,  her  eyes  filling  again  with  tears. 

"That  is  hard  to  tell,"  Commander  Wilkins  an- 
swered. "They  may  be  unconscious  or  very  near  so. 
Probably  those  who  are  alive  do  not  know  that  they 
are  inside  the  earth's  orbit  again.  They  may  have 
all  the  compartments  closed  to  keep  what  oxygen  they 
had  in  them." 

Gradually  the  Annihilator  dropped  earthward,  her 
huge  body  casting  a  long  shadow  over  the  airdrome. 
The  winches  groaned  as  they  rewound  the  cables.  Pro- 
fessor Stilsen  sat  like  a  marble  image,  watching.  .  .  . 


As  a  precaution  against  further  disaster,  he  grabbed 
up  the  speaking  tubes  suddenly  and  yelled  into  them. 

"Don't  break  the  current  in  the  magnetic  plates  until 
I  order  you!"  he  said,  holding  a  tube  to  his  lips  and 
apparently  speaking  to  the  operators  handling  the 
electrical  control  systems  of  the  magnetic  drums. 
"Release  the  gravity  insulation  slowly  from  the  drums 
and  stand  by  your  posts  for  further  orders  1" 

Hopes  and  Fears 

PRESENTLY  the  Annihilator  touched  the  earth  and 
rolled  over  gently,  the  magnetic  drums  still  attached 
tightly  to  her  glistening  body.  Immediately  she  be- 
came surrounded  by  milling  workmen  and  there  came 
to  us  where  we  stood  on  the  observation  platform  the 
resounding  beat  of  compressed  air  hammers  and  cutters 
as  they  strove  to  make  an  opening  in  the  huge,  cobalt- 
steel  hull.  There  seemed  to  be  nothing  to  indicate  that 
any  life  existed  within  the  Annihilator,  and  I  hung  my 
head.  Joan  clung  to  my  arm,  her  body  sagging. 

Commander  Wilkins  nodded  to  me  and  I  half  carried 
her  down  the  platform  steps  to  the  ground.  With 
faltering  steps  she  walked  with  us  toward  the 
Annihilator.  Apparently  from  nowhere  had  come  auto- 
motive ambulances  and  hospital  planes.  White-coated 
and  trousered  figures  scurried  past  us  carrying 
stretchers.  I  hustled  Joan  along  to  keep  up  with  the 
rapid  steps  of  Commander  Wilkins  and  finally  we 
arrived  at  the  side  of  the  ill-fated  leviathan. 

There  came  an  exultant  shout  from  a  gaping  hole 
in  the  side  of  the  ship  as  the  first  limp  form  was 
handed  through  it  into  eager,  waiting  hands.  I  noticed 
a  peculiar  sound  of  whirring  machinery  issuing  from 
the  ship  as  we  came  up  to  it.  Suddenly  it  ceased.  The 
electro-magnetizing  units  had  been  shut  down,  but  the 
magnetic  drums  still  remained  in  position. 

In  a  constant  stream,  limp  human  forms  were 
handed  through  the  gaping  hole  made  in  the  side  of 
the  Annihilator.  Joan  tore  her  eyes  away  in  time  to 
forego  the  sight  of  one  man,  screaming  wildly  and 
hysterically,  being  brought  from  the  bowels  of  the  ship. 
As  terrible  as  it  was,  it  caused  my  hopes  to  rise  sud- 
denly, for  if  one  man  lived,  there  was  an  odd  chance 
that  life  existed  in  others.  Joan  kept  her  face  hidden 
behind  my  back.  I  continued  to  watch  and  presently 
my  eyes  beheld  the  familiar  features  of  Lieutenant 
Allison.  His  face  was  pale  as  though  in  the  embrace 
of  death  and  I  held  Joan  tightly  as  his  inert  form  was 
given  to  waiting  arms. 

I  had  not  wanted  her  to  see  that  face  but  I  could 
not  withstand  the  agonized  torture  of  standing  there 
without  learning  of  his  fate.  I  decided  that  if  Bob 
was  dead  we  should  know  of  it,  and  I  hustled  Joan 
from  the  milling  crowd  to  follow  the  two  men  carrying 
his  inert,  death-like  form  across  the  field. 

Slowly  we  followed  and  as  we  walked  along  in  the 
direction  of  a  long,  white  building  over  which  rustled 
a  Red  Cross  flag,  I  explained  to  Joan  what  I  had  seen. 
She  gave  a  little  cry  and  fairly  flew  toward  the 
hospital.  I  struggled  to  keep  up  with  her.  The  two 
men  were  just  entering  a  door  with  Bob's  limp  form 
as  we  came  up.  We  followed  immediately  into  a  long 
room  filled  with  rows  of  white-sheeted  cots,  some  with 
pale,  agonized  faces  showing  from  the  coverings, 
others  covered  entirely. 

Joan  dashed  forward  as  Bob's  form  was  being  laid 
upon  a  cot,  but  two  white-capped  nurses  halted  her. 
"I'm  sorry,  Miss,"  one  of  them  said.  "You  will 
(Continued  on  page  183) 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT  133 
The  Story  Thus  Far 


New  York  is  startled  by  m  mysterious  and  daring  robbery.  Early  one 
morning,  everyone  in  the  financial  district  is  put  to  sleep  for  two  hours 
by  some  it  range  gas  let  loose,  and  some  unknown  and  unseen  robbers 
help  themselves  to  millions  of  dollars  of  gold  and  millions  in  negotiable 
securities  from  three  banks.  The  next  day,  the  securities  ore  found  in 
Ike  Post  Office  addressed  to  several  hospitals,  and  boxes  containing 
millions  in  radium  also  consigned  to  hospitals.  James  Boon,  son  of  the 
president  of  the  National  Metallurgical,  one  of  the  invaded  bonks,  decides 
to  investigate  the  robberies.  He  finds  that  the  gas  has  stopped  all  autos 
in  the  invaded  district  and  also  hod  tarnished  gold  (*  feat  seemingly 
impossible).  He  also  finds  near  the  banks  a  little  powdered  gloss,  which 
seemed  to  be  the  remains  of  the  containers  of  the-  gas.  He  finds  men 
who  noticed  a,  have  in  the  streets  before  falling  asleep.  He  takes  the 
matter  up  with  Dan  Lament,  a  scientist  friend,  who  is  trying  to  dis* 
cover  what  gas  has  been  used,  and  how.  Several  days  later  comer  the 
news  of  the  robbery  of  a  gasoline  station  in  Newark  of  considerable 
aviation  gas,  and^  also  the  invasion  of  a  provisions  store  with  a  great 
amount  of  provisions  taken;  but  in  this  ease  money  is  left  to  pay  for 
them.    From  what  Boon  and  Lament  can  figure  out  and  from  the  evi~ 


deuce  of  a  half-drunken  employee  atop  the  Metallurgical  Building,  who 
claimed  to  have  seen  an  airship  the  day  of  the  bank  robbery,  they  believe 
the  bandits  came  via  the  air  with  a  new  principle'  airship.  Boon  it  by 
profession  on  inventor  of  airplane  devices  and  has  constructed  a  new 
revolutionary  plane,  the  MERLIN,  capable  of  making  550  kilometers  an 
hour.  At  the  request  of  his  father,  he  goes  out  over  the  Atlantic,  accom- 
panied  by  his  mechanic,  Mtlliken,  ana  Lament,  to  pick  up  from  the 
PARNASSIC,  steaming  toward  New  York,  Lord  Almeric  Pfuscarden, 
deputy  governor  of  the  Bank  of  England.  They  arrive  over  the  ship  to 
find  the  deck  covered  with  apparently  dead  men  and  the  ship  rolling 
as  though  it  had  no  control.  They  discover,  after  making  a  landing  on 
it,  that  the  some  bandits  hod  made  a  raid  on  the  ship,  by  putting  every- 
body to  sleep,  and  stolen  from  the  safe  $2,500,000  m  gold.  Boon  picks 
up  Lord  Alsneric  and  his  pretty  secretory  and  niece,  Kirstetn  Torrance, 
and  starts  back  to  the  States.    On  the  way  back  they  get  a  radio  message 

SI  oh  oil  steamer,  stating  that  ell  aboard  had  been  put  to  sleep  for  two 
r*  {as  in  alt  the  other  case)  and  the  steamer  rifted  of  3,000  litres  of 
aviation  gasoline. 


CHAPTER  VI 
Searching  the  Clouds 

WE  had  left  the  Parnassic  at  about  six  o'clock, 
New  York  time,  with  a  flight  of  nearly 
twelve  hundred  kilometres  before  us.  Keeping 
the  Merlin  at  a  steady  four-sixty  per  hour,  we  expected 
to  make  the  Battery  soon  after  half-past  eight. 

From  the  bearing  which  the  radio  indicator  had 
given  us  of  the  Wcstbury's  position,  Dan  and  I 
plotted  out  her  relation  to  the  Parnassic  at  the  time 
of  the  raid,  and  found  that  she  had  been  just  over  sixty 
kilometres  from  the  liner.  She  was  probably  one  of  the 
freighters  we  had  sighted  in  approaching  the  Parnassic. 

Now,  the  hour  given  by  the  Wcstbury's  skipper  as 
the  time  when  she  was  brought  to — eight  bells  in  the 
middle  watch,  or  four  o'clock  in  the  morning— revealed 
the  astonishing  fact  that  the  raid  on  the  Parnassic  had 
been  pulled  off,  sixty  kilometres  covered,  and  the  oil- 
tanker  stopped,  all  within  an  hour.  Even  at  record 
airship  speed,  the  flight  between  the  two  vessels  would 
occupy  nearly  twenty-five  minutes,  which  left  thirty- 
five  in  which  to  board  the  liner,  break  open  the  strong- 
room and  specie  boxes,  and  remove  three  thousand  kilos 
of  gold  before  casting  off.  It  seemed  incredible  that 
one  group  of  pirates  could  have  effected  the  two 
operations. 

We  tried  to  work  out  the  raids  with  every  conceivable 
type  of  craft,  taking  into  consideration  the  time  factors 
and  the  six  thousand  kilos  weight  of  gold  and  oil  that 
had  been  carried  away.  We  even  tried  Dick  Schuyler's 
idea  of  a  motor-ship,  giv- 


ing her  the  highest 
known  speed  for  sea- 
borne craft,  but  wc 
found  the  thing  impos- 
sible, despite  the  fact  that 
we  provided  her  with 
hydroplane  type  of 
power-boats  as  auxili- 
aries. We  were  inevit- 
ably brought  back  to  our 
airship. 

When  we  came  to  con- 
sider what  kind  of  ma- 
chine would  have  made 
possible  the  whole  series 
of  operations — from  the 
gasoline  station  at  New- 
ark, Wall  Street,  the 
Parnassic,  to  the  descent 
on  the  Weslbury  —  the 
weight  of  the  evidence 
was  strongly  in  favor  of 


/N  the  present  installment,  this  classic  of 
sctentific-aviation  stories  takes  on  greater  and 
greater  interest  and  the  reader  follows  breath- 
lessly the  wonders  of  this  latter  day  aviation. 
The  author  has  a  marvelous  knack  of  remaining 
ahead  of  you  at  all  times  and  he  is  continuously 
outguessing  your  own  efforts  to  decide  what  is 
going  to  happen. 

None  of  the  scientific  instrumentalities  which 
the  author  brings  into  this  story  are  either  im- 
possible or  improbable.  Quite  the  contrary,  the 
latest  scientific  researches  show  that  the  scientific 
content  of  Mr.  MacClure's  story  will  probably 
seem  quite  tame  twenty-five  years  hence. 

This  Summer  we  are  to  witness  a  great  many 
exhibitions  of  various  monster  airships  of  the 
lighter-than-air  variety  and  while  these  airships 
may  not  be  as  perfect  as  the  ones  described  by 
the  author,  we  may  rest  assured  that  not  many 
years  will  pass  before  they  have  seen  such 
perfection. 


a  dirigible  of  the 
very  latest  type; 
and  the  abstraction 
of  the  gasoline 
from  the  Newark 
station  and  from 
the  Westbury  was 
an  additional  sup- 
port to  the  idea, 
since  an  airship 
carrying  out  these 
operations  would 
certainly  need  to 
replenish  her  fuel. 

We  imagined  the 
pirates  operating 
from  a  base  within 
a  day's  flight  of 
New  York  and, 
judging  from  the 
raid  on  the  Parnassic,  probably  situated  over  the 
Canadian  border.  The  weakness  of  the  raider's  posi- 
tion in  using  a  dirigible  or  dirigibles  for  their  operations 
lay  in  the  conspicuousness  of  their  craft,  and  of  the 
sheds  necessary  for  docking  them.  We  did  not  lose 
sight  of  the  possibility  that  the  pirates  might  be  mas- 
querading as  a  corporation  engagedin  civilian  transport. 
A  few  such  companies  were  in  existence,  despite  the 
popular  prejudice  against  the  so-called  "lighter-than- 
air"  machines  on  account  of  the  structural  weaknesses 
which  in  the  latter  seemed  to  be  past  curing.  But  every 
dirigible  that  took  the  air, 


VICTOR  MflcCIURE 


whether  experimental  or 
otherwise,  could  only  do 
so  under  permit  or  li- 
cense from  the  govern- 
ment. It  would  present 
no  great  difficulty  there- 
fore for  the  police  to  run 
to  earth  any  unregistered 
airship  on  American  ter- 
ritory. 

With  the  help  of  Lord 
Almeric  and  Miss  Tor- 
rance, and  an  occasional 
word  from  Milliken,  Dan 
and  I  decided  on  a  pres- 
ent plan  of  action.  If 
the  raiders  had  used  an 
airship,  they  would  now 
be  making  for  their  base 
and  could  not  be  far 
away  from  us  in  the  air. 
To  escape  detection  they 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


would  probably  get  to  as  high  an  altitude  as  possible. 
We  determined  that,  while  keeping  our  course  for 
New  York,  we  would  go  up  in  search. 

First,  we  got  in  touch  by  radio  with  Dick  Schuyler's 
headquarters,  but  while  we  were  asking  for  him,  he 
himself  broke  in  from  another  direction. 

"I'm  just  taking  a  flip  out  to  meet  you,  Jimmy,"  he 
explained  cheerfully.  "Look  out  for  me  soon." 

"Have  you  heard  from  the  Parnassicf"  I  asked  him. 

"Just  got  the  radio  from  her  captain.  The  airship 
notion  seems  to  be  all  right.  Anyhow,  we  cops 
are  acting  on  the  idea,  and  are  going  through  our 
particular  sphere  with  a  fine  comb.  It's  a  silly 
question,  Jimmy — but  you  haven't  seen  any  signs 
of  a  dirigible,  have  your" 

"No,  I'd  have  told  you  " 

"Help  us  in  this.  Climb  as  high  as  you  can  with- 
out discomfort  to  your  passengers,  and  keep  a  sharp 
lookout.  If  you  see  anything,  tip  me  the  direction, 
and  we'll  be  after  the  jokers  like  a  knife.  For  the 
nonce,  so-long,  Jimmy  1  Cheerio,  Dan !" 

Dick's  request  came  on  the  heels  of  our  own  de- 
cision. We  had  already  turned  on  extra  heaters  and 
the  compressed  air,  and  were  climbing  good  and 
high.  We  kept  up  a  bright  lookout,  but  until  Dick 
and  his  scouts  hove  in  sight  below  us  to  the  west, 
the  upper  air  was  clean  of  aircraft. 

As  we  dropped  to  meet  him,  Dick  began  an- 
other discussion.  He  agreed  that  the  likeliest  di- 
rection in  which  to  look  for  the  raiders  was  to  the 
northward,  and  on  his  order  his  five  scouts  made  a 
sweeping  movement  under  our  bows  to  starboard 
which  was  pretty  to  watch.  He  himself  came  near 
enough  to  us  to  let  us  see  his  cheery  grin  and  to 
give  us  a  wave  of  his  hand,  before  turning  to  follow 
his  scouts.  Presently  all  six  were  the  merest  dots  on 
our  starboard  quarter. 

It  was  worth  while  carrying  a  passenger  like 
Miss  Torrance.  She  was  keenly  alive  to  everything 
that  was  happening,  and,  like  her  uncle,  took  a  use- 
ful part  in  the  lookout.  In  fact,  she  had  her  eyes 
so  steadily  fixed  on  the  upper  air  that  we  were  in 
good  sight  of  New  York  before  she  realized  the 
landfall. 

I  will  say  that  her  first  view  of  the  city  was  al- 
most worthy  of  her.  I  have  never  seen  the  old  hive 
look  quite  so  splendid.  It  was  one  of  those  cool 
bright  sunny  mornings  we  sometimes  get  in  March 
that  make  everything  look  so  clean. 

The  pale  golden  light  picked  out  all  the  towers 
and  pinnacles  of  the  city  in  wonderful  definition, 
until  they  became  mere  points  of  light  against  the 
smeary  blue  of  the  distance.  This  blue  distance 
rose  up  and  up  till  it  lost  itself  in  the  tawny  base 
of  the  sky,  and  from  that,  cloud  was  piled  on  cloud 
in  an  arch  that  curved  towards  us  in  gold  and  pale 
tan  and  grey,  to  end  in  dazzling  white  against  the 
deep  blue  right  over  our  heads.  The  waters  of  the 
bay  looked  in  the  sun  like  a  filmy  grey-green  gauze 
carrying  countless  spangles,  except  where  the  tall 
buildings  threw  their  long  shadows,  which  were 
deep  indigo  with  lighter  patches  of  pure  cobalt.  I 
think  even  Lord  Almeric  was  stirred  out  of  his 
habitual  quiet  by  the  sight. 

"My  dear,"  he  said  to  his  niece,  "you  are  to  be 
envied.  New  York  has  summoned  all  her  charm 
to  greet  you.  In  all  the  years  I  have  known  her, 
she  has  never  seemed  so  winning." 

"Lovely,  lovely !  See  all  the  buildings  like  golden 


cliffs,"  the  girl  cried.  "So  tiny!  It  makes  one 
think  of  man  as  only  a  very  industrious  insect- 
like  the  weeny  things  that  build  the  coral  islands." 

"Then  you  have  to  thank  Mr.  Boon  for  giving 
you  a  god's-eye  view  of  your  kind,  Kirsteen, '  said 
Lord  Almeric  with  a  smile. 

She  turned  to  me,  and  looked  up,  with  those 
serene  blue  eyes  of  hers  very  grave. 

"Do  you  ever  develop  a  godlike  indifference  to 
the  invisible  little  active  creatures  below  you,  Mr. 
Boon?" 

"No,"  said  I.  "I'm  afraid  I'm  always  too  con- 
scious that  I'm  just  one  of  them  myself,  and  that 
my  particular  activity  is  only  a  part  of  the  human 
scheme.  Miss  Torrance." 

She  turned  to  Milliken  with  a  smile,  and  his  wide 
grin  about  split  his  old  face. 

"What  about  you,  Mr.  Milliken?  Do  you  ever 
feel  superior?" 

"Bless  you,  miss,"  said  Milliken.  "I  know  the  old 
earth's  pulling  at  me  all  the  time,  and  that  some- 
time I'll  have  to  give  in  and  get  down.  You  can't 
be  a  god  if  your  job  has  a  string  to  it." 

"The  philosophy  of  flying  in  a  nutshell,  Kir- 
steen," Lord  Almeric  laughed. 

"I  see  I  must  not  become  imaginative,"  said  Miss 
Torrance.  "Mr.  Milliken  is  braver-minded  than  you 
are,  Mr.  Boon.  I'm  sure  there  are  moments  when 
he  isn't  earthbound." 

When  Milliken  goes  red,  he  gets  black — if  the 
Irishism  can  be  excused.  I  have  never  seen  hint 
quite  so  dusky  as  he  was  when  he  pushed  the 
Merlin  into  the  long  drive  that  would  bring  us  into 
our  hover  to  the  landing-stage  at  the  Battery.  It 
was  a  marvel  to  me  how  quickly  he  and  Misa 
Torrance  had  understood  each  other,  and  I  was  not 
a  little  envious  of  my  mechanic.  I'd  have  given 
a  good  deal  to  have  said  something  that  pleased 
her. 

Well,  anyhow,  the  god's-eye  view  soon  became 
the  ordinary  human  view,  and  we  floated  gently  up 
to  the  seaplane  jetty  just  after  the  quarter  to  nine. 
My  father  had  already  arrived.  In  fact,  I  had  seen 
the  Seven  pass  far  below  us  as  we  came  down  over 
Long  Island.  He  was  waiting  for  us  on  the  landing- 
stage,  and  he  and  Lord  Almeric  shook  hands  like 
old  friends.  There  was  a  trifle  of  formality  to  go 
through  with  the  customs,  but  that  was  soon  over. 

Lord  Almeric  and  Miss  Torrance  poured  thanks 
on  Milliken,  who  was  to  take  the  Merlin  back  to 
Gardiner  Bay,  until  he  was  almost  ebony  colour 
with  embarrassment.  Then  Dan  and  I  joined  the 
party  to  go  uptown  for  breakfast. 

A  Faux  Pas 

WHILE  we  waited  for  Lord  Almeric  and  Miss 
Torrance  to  discard  their  wraps  and  make 
themselves  comfortable  after  the  flight,  Dan  and 
I  gave  my  father  a  full  account  of  the  morning's 
doings.  He  already  had  heard  the  bare  particulars, 
as  supplied  to  the  press  by  the  captain  of  the 
Parnassic,  for  the  papers  were  selling  in  the  streets 
with  the  news.  The  full  force  of  the  air  police,  both 
the  sea  and  land  divisions,  had  been  mustered  at 
once  to  sweep  the  air  in  wide  radius  round  New 
York.  The  navy  and  the  river  police  were  active 
among  the  shipping  at  sea  and  in  dock.  Through 
the  night,  the  territorial  police  had  been  scouring 
town  and  country,  examining  garages  and  all  places 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


135 


where  the  thieves  might  be  concealed,  and  all 
known  criminals  in  New  York  of  the  safe-breaking 
persuasion  had  been  rounded  up  and  their  haunts 
thoroughly  examined.  But  no  clue  to  the  where- 
abouts of  the  stolen  gold  was  discovered. 

"The  chances  are  that  it  is  in  the  air  at  the 
present  moment,  dad,"  I  said  to  him.  "We  must 
have  passed  somewhere  near  the  airship — if  airship 
it  was— on  the  way  out.  We  must  have  sighted 
the  Westbury  less  than  half  an  hour  after  the  pirates 
left  her.  If  the  airship  is  making  for  the  American 
continent  at  all,  it  can  hardly  escape  being  seen,  at 
least,  with  all  those  police  machines  out." 

"Do  you  think  they'll  be  able  to  send  her  down?" 

"It  depends  greatly  in  what  circumstances  they 
come  on  her.  She  may  be  too  high  to  be  got  at  in 
an  open  plane,  and  the  police  machines  are  no- 
toriously unsuited  for  high  altitudes.  But  the  fellow 
that  sees  her  may  be  able  to  broadcast  her  position 
to  all  aerodromes,  and  so  get  properly  equipped 
planes  to  help.  I  won't  consider  she's  escaped  until 
dark  has  come  on." 

"Let's  hope  you  prove  right,"  said  the  old  man. 
"Things  are  too  uneasy  to  be  comfortable,  and  a 
solution  of  the  mystery  would  stave  off  a  lot  of 
trouble  for  the  business  world." 

Miss  Torrance  and  Lord  Almeric  joined  us  then, 
and  we  went  in  to  breakfast.  The  talk,  perhaps 
naturally,  was  still  of  the  robberies,  until  the  two 
bankers  fell  to  discussing  some  obscure  financial 
situation.  Lord  Almeric,  asking  his  niece  for  con- 
firmation of  some  figures,  effectually  isolated  Dan 
and  myself,  and  it  was  with  something  of  awe  that 
we  heard  Miss  Torrance  talk  familiarly  of  millions, 
using  such  phrases  as  "ranking  pari  passu,"  "funded 
loan,"  "par  of  exchange."  In  spite  of  her  obvious 
efficiency,  the  talk  fell  strangely  from  the  lips  of 
such  a  pretty  girl.  I  think  even  my  father  was 
surprised. 

"You  have  a  wonderful  grasp  of  figures,  Miss 
Torrance,"  he  smiled. 

"Wonderful  because  of  my  sex,  Mr.  Boon?" 

"Not  at  all,"  said  my  father;  "wonderful  in  any 
case." 

"My  niece,"  Lord  Almeric  explained,  "comes  of 
a  stock  famous  in  mathematics.  Robert  Torrance, 
the  mathematician,  was  her  uncle." 

"Then,  Miss  Torrance,"  Dan  Lamont  butted  in, 
"you  must  be  related  to — I  beg  your  pardon!" 

He  broke  off  in  confusion  and  flushed  red.  Miss 
Torrance  regarded  him  with  kindness. 

"If  you  intended  saying  that  I  must  be  related 
to  David  Torrance,  the  physicist,  who  disappeared 
just  over  twenty-two  years  ago,"  she  said,  "I  am 
proud  to  say  that  he  was  my  father,  Mr.  Lamont." 

"I'm  sorry,"  Dan  stammered.  "I  did  not  mean 
to  cause  you  pain." 

"You  do  not  hurt  me  by  recalling  the  fact  ol  my 
father's  disappearance.  I  never  saw  him — and  he 
never  saw  me.  I  was  born  after  he  was  lost.  Uncle 
Almeric  is  the  only  father  I  have  known — indeed 
the  only  parent — and  his  kindness  has  softened  any 
regrets  I  may  have  for  my  real  father.  He  was  a 
;;reat  physicist,  I  believe,  and  I  treasure  any  in- 
formation about  him,  any  praise  that  is  given  to  his 
work." 

"David  Torrance  was  a  great  man,"  Dan  said 
quietly,  with  recovered  equanimity.  "Every  scientist 
owes  him  a  debt  of  gratitude,  and  must  regret  that 


he  was  not  permitted  to  work  longer.  The  best 
men  of  our  time,"  he  finished  warmly,  "are  plodders 
and  half-blind  crawlers  compared  with  David 
Torrance !" 

"Thank  you,  Mr.  Lamont,"  the  girl  murmured, 
and  her  eyes  were  misty. 

"Well  spoken,  Dan !"  said  my  father,  and  turned 
to  Lord  Almeric  and  his  niece.  "Dan  Lamont,"  he 
explained,  "has  one  of  the  greatest  reputations 
among  physicists  in  this  country — so  his  opinion  on 
such  a  subject  is  of  some  value." 

Red-faced  as  usual  at  any  reference  to  his 
eminence,  Dan  rose  in  some  confusion. 

"If  you'll  excuse  me,  Miss  Torrance — Lord  Al- 
meric," he  said  hurriedly,  "I — I  must  be  going. 
Some  important  work — I — good-bye,  Miss  Torrance 
—sorry  I  was  clumsy.  Good-bye,  Lord  Almeric  " 

"Wait  a  moment,  Dan,"  said  I.  "I'll  come  with 
you." 

I,  too,  made  my  adieus,  and  we  both  went  off. 

There  was  nothing  new  to  hear  in  Dan's  labor- 
atory except  a  lot  that  was  speculation  and  clean 
over  my  head  at  that,  so  I  left  my  friend  to  take  off 
his  jacket  and  plunge  into  work.  I  could  see  no 
useful  purpose  to  be  served  by  stopping  in  New 
York,  and  I  went  down  to  the  Battery  where  Didcot 
was  still  standing  by  with  the  Seven. 

We  moored  at  the  workshop  jetty  within  half  an 
hour. 

Vanished 

THEN  began  a  fortnight  of  close  application  to 
work.  The  flights  we  had  made  on  the  Merlin 
had  given  me  ideas  for  slight  variations  in  the  de- 
sign, and  I  wanted  my  shops  to  be  set  as  soon  as 
possible  on  the  task  of  making  a  Merlin  II,  which 
would  incorporate  those  ideas. 

My  hurry  was  actuated  by  the  certainty  that  I 
had  of  the  raids  being  carried  out  with  a  new  type 
of  dirigible.  I  had  that  inexplicable  feeling,  general- 
ly termed  a  hunch,  that  we  had  not  seen  the  last 
of  the  raiders,  and  that  before  we  were  done  with 
them  there  would  be  a  few  Merlins  in  the  air. 

I  was  puzzled  by  the  radium,  which  the  back  of 
my  mind  refused  to  let  me  dissociate  from  the 
pirates.  If,  indeed,  those  priceless  boxes  had  come 
from  the  mysterious  organization  that  had  carried 
out  the  amazing  series  of  raid  in  two  days,  they 
were  no  ordinary  crooks  that  we  were  opposing. 
The  sale  of  the  radium,  Dan  assured  me,  would 
have  brought  in  nearly  as  much  money  as  the 
robbers  had  stolen. 

There  was  something  underlying  the  raids  that 
the  mind  could  not  fathom,  an  idea  too  big  to  be 
merely  criminal,  too  vast  in  conception  to  find  its 
limit  in  the  affairs  of  the  past  two  days. 

To  me,  my  side  ol  the  job  was  now  plain.  The 
menace  was  from  the  air,  and  the  air  was  my  ele- 
ment. I  had,  I  could  tell  myself  without  immodesty, 
the  finest  weapon  for  air  fighting  that  was  known 
to  exist,  and  my  business  was  to  perfect  that  weapon 
to  the  best  of  my  ability. 
To  bring  the  position  to  its  lowest  estimate : 
If  the  gifts  of  radium  to  the  institutions  were  not 
the  work  of  the  raiders,  it  was  extremely  unlikely 
that  a  criminal  gang,  possessed  of  such  powerful 
and  effectively  proved  aids  to  plundering,  would  be 
content  with  their  present  gains.  It  would  be 
humanly  impossible  to  resist  the  temptation  to  work 


136 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


the  feat  again.  They  might  wait  until  the  outcry 
against  them  died  down,  till  the  forces  that  might 
be  opposed  to  them  were  lulled  into  a.  false  sense 
of  security,  but  it  seemed  to  me  psychologically  im- 
possible that  a  criminal  gang  could  withstand  the 
itch  of  their  fingers  for  such  easily  acquired  wealth. 

In  any  case,  hurrying  up  my  work  would  do  me 
no  harm.  My  ideas  for  the  improvement  of  the 
Merlin  were  concrete  enough  to  warrant  pushing 
ahead.  I  did  not  want,  for  some  indefinable  reason 
of  sentiment  maybe,  to  part  with  my  original  model 
to  the  Government.  The  Merlin  was  almost  alive 
to  me,  and  I  knew  that  Milliken  shared  the  feeling. 
Besides,  in  herself  she  was  the  most  flexible  of  ma- 
chines— responsive,  grateful  to  one's  hands — just 
that  uncanny  accident  of  assembled  material  that 
happens  once  in  a  hundred  times.  Her  design  might 
be  repeated  over  and  over  again  to  the  fraction  of 
a  millimetre,  and  yet  no  machine  be  produced  that 
had  her  personal  quality. 

The  variations  in  the  design  which  I  contem- 
plated were  merely  to  make  the  machines  that 
might  be  built  from  it  safer  in  unskilful  hands.  The 
original  Merlin  in  the  hands  of  Milliken  or  myself 
would  be  capable  of  everything  that  her  sister- 
planes  could  do. 

Before  dark  that  Tuesday  night  it  became  plain 
that  no  trace  of  the  air  pirates  would  be  discovered. 
The  air  police  abandoned  the  chase,  having  combed 
out  a  great  radius  from  New  York  without  the 
slightest  result.  During  the  day  I  had  been  in  radio 
communication  with  Dick  Schuyler,  who  kept  me 
well  informed,  and  his  last  message  before  he  went 
off  from  a  long  spell  of  duty  was  that  the  author- 
ities were  taking  the  tardy  step  of  doubling  the 
patrols  for  the  night. 

My  father  arrived  at  the  workshops  soon  after 
seven,  and  for  a  while  he  sat  beside  me  on  a  high 
stool  as  I  worked  at  the  drafting  table.  Thus 
perched,  he  told  me  very  calmly  of  an  exhausting 
day.  The  run  on  the  banks  of  the  Monday  had 
been  repeated  on  the  Tuesday,  and  there  had  been 
the  greatest  difficulty  in  meeting  the  situation. 
Nothing  but  selling  had  gone  on  in  the  Stock  Ex- 
change and  the  fall  that  had  ensued  in  all  classes 
of  shares,  in  some  cases  reducing  quotations  by 
as  much  as  half,  had  produced  a  position  in  the 
matter  of  loan  accounts  unheard  of  in  the  history 
of  banking. 

"If  the  government  investigators  were  to  ex- 
amine our  books  at  this  moment,  Jimmy,"  said  the 
old  man,  "they'd  find  a  position  of  affairs  that 
theoretically  could  land  me  in  jail.  Think  of  that !" 

"I'd  rather  not  think  of  it,  dad,"  said  I.  "The 
thing's  quite  abnormal,  isn't  it?  It's  out  of  all 
relation  to  the  actual  loss?" 

"Of  course  it  is.  It's  the  result  of  cold  feet — 
don't  you  call  it? — among  speculators  in  the  stock 
markets.  Not  a  few  men  have  been  ruined  to-day 
who  two  or  three  days  ago  were  worth  considerable 
fortunes.  There's  nothing  more  unreasoning  than 
a  scared  investor  or  speculator.  It's  all  madness — 
stark  madness!   Coming  home  to  dinner?" 

"Give  me  a  minute  to  hand  this  over  to  the  pat- 
tern-maker, and  I'll  be  with  you." 

We  had  a  quiet  dinner  together  at  Hazeldene, 
and  my  father  approved  of  my  plans. 

"I  don't  see  what  else  you  can  do,  son,"  said 
he.   "The  thing  is  too  big  for  ordinary  detective 


work  I'm  convinced  you're  on  the  right  lines.  What 
about  finances?" 

"I'm  well  in  funds,  dad.  That  mooring  tackle 
brings  in  enough  in  royalties  to  keep  the  sheds 
going  full  swing,  even  if  they  did  not  pay — which 
they  do.  Thank  you  all  the  same,  dad." 

"That's  all  right,  then.  I  depend  on  you  to  play 
fair  and  let  me  stand  my  share  of  the  expenses. 
Mind  that." 

"You  shall  have  the  gasoline  account,  dad,"  I 
grinned  at  him.  "I  can  see  old  Milliken  joy-riding 
furiously  at  your  expense!" 

"Ah  I"  my  father  said  suddenly.  "That's  a  good 
man  of  yours,  Jimmy — that  Milliken.  Lord  Almeric 
and  his  niece  are  greatly  attracted  to  him." 

"By  the  by,"  he  went  on.  "I  have  asked  them 
both  out  here  for  the  week-end.  I  hope  you'll  be 
able  to  show  them  round  your  shops?' 

"Very  glad." 

"And  perhaps  you'll  be  able  to  spare  a  little  time 
from  your  work  to  look  after  Miss  Torrance.  She 
is  very  much  a  business  girl,  but  I'm  sure  she'd  like 
to  do  a  theatre  or  two — something  like  that." 

"When  I  have  the  drafting  done  for  the  new 
Merlin,  I'll  be  delighted." 

"Good.  I  knew  you  would.  Well,  I  must  do  some 
work,  son.  Are  you  going  back  to  the  shops?" 

"Must,  dad,"  said  I.  "I  want  the  men  to  have 
a  clear  start  in  the  morning.  Good-night,  dad.  See 
you  at  breakfast,  I  hope.  Ira  bunking  down  at  the 
shops,  but  I'll  come  over  in  the  morning." 

"Half-past  eight,  then.   Good-night,  Jimmy." 

Next  morning,  by  the  time  I  had  breakfast  with 
the  old  man,  I  had  done  enough  work  to  let  my 
fellows  get  a  clean  start  on  laying  down  the  keels 
of  three  new  Merlins.  The  drafting  had  taken  me 
and  my  assistant  all  night,  so  when  I  had  driven 
my  father  down  to  the  jetty,  and  had  seen  him  off 
with  Didcot  on  the  Seven,  I  turned  in,  leaving 
Milliken  in  charge  of  the  construction. 

I  slept  until  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when 
I  was  awakened  by  an  S  O  S  through  the  bank 
from  Sir  Peter  Weatherly,  who  had  berthed  the 
Parnassic  in  the  morning,  and  wanted  the  evidence 
of  Dan  and  myself  for  the  police.  It  was  a  nuisance, 
but  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  take  the  Seven 
and  get  to  the  Battery  as  soon  as  I  could. 

Encountering  the  Police 

I FOUND  Dan  and  the  old  sailor  being  badgered 
into  a  state  of  irritation  by  one  of  the  government 
investigators,  who  could  not  accept  the  evidence 
they  had  given  him,  but  wanted  the  very  things 
explained  that  everybody  was  puzzled  about.  The 
pair  of  them  greeted  my  arrival  like  a  couple  of 
lost  pups — they  both  had  that  extraordinary  likable 
doggy  quality  you  sometimes  see  in  men — and 
listened  to  my  evidence  with  obvious  relief.  I 
imagine  the  investigator  had  badgered  them  into 
thinking  my  version  might  possibly  contradict  their 
own. 

"But  it's  preposterous!"  the  investigator  cried. 
"Three  sane  men  can  produce  only  a  bare  yarn 
like  that!" 

"What  sort  of  yarn  do*  you  expect  us  to  produce?" 
I  asked.  "Of  course  it's  preposterous  from  start 
to  finish.  It's  up  to  you  to  explain  the  prc- 
posterousness." 

The  man  was  rattled.  A  relic  of  the  bad  old  days 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


137 


of  the  police,  he  found  himself,  like  the  rest  of  us, 
against  a  blank  wall,  and  the  fact  annoyed  him. 
He  banged  his  fist  on  the  table. 

"This  is  a  case  of  collusion !"  he  yelled. 

"Ill  give  you  one  minute  to  get  back  your 
sanity,"  I  told  him.  "If  you  can't  do  it  in  that  time, 
my  friends  and  I  will  quit." 

"Quit,  will  you  ?"  he  snarled.  "If  you  say  another 
word,  I'll  have  the  three  of  you  detained  I" 

"If  you  say  another  word  like  that,"  said  I,  "I'll 
have  you  pushed  out  of  the  service  for  the  damned 
fool  you  are  1  You  get  an  account  of  this  affair  from  a 
man  so  distinguished  at  his  job  that  his  country 
gives  him  one  of  its  highest  honours.  You  get  an- 
other account  from  another  man,  equally  disting- 
uished, except  for  his  age,  and  a  man  trained  in  the 
most  exact  observation  as  well.  I'll  say  nothing  of 
myself,  finally,  except  that  until  now  my  honesty 
has  never  been  questioned.  And  you  have  the  gall 
to  use  such  a  word  to  us  as  'collusion'  1  As  an  in- 
vestigator you're  not  only  crudely  impertinent — 
you're  a  pitiful  vulgar  joke!" 

"Why— why— you  pup  I  You — you — skinny, 
mangy  pup !"  he  gasped,  livid  with  rage. 

"You're  a  judge  of  pups.  Maybe  the  kennel  you 
came  out  of  taught  you  that,"  said  I,  "but  it  failed 
to  teach  you  how  to  investigate!  Come  on,  Sir 
Peter.  Come  on,  Danny." 

There  was  no  attempt  to  stop  us,  and  we  got  into 
the  street.  Old  Sir  Peter  took  hold  of  my  hand  and 
shook  it  nearly  enough  to  take  my  arm  from  its 
socket. 

"I  congratulate  you,  young  man!"  he  cried. 
"Fifty  years  at  sea,  and  I  never  heard  a  man  ticked 
off  like  it  before!  And  only  one  casual  cuss-word 
in  the  whole  recital.  That's  the  wonder  of  it !" 

It  was  curious  how  the  traditional  dread  of  the 
shipmaster  for  the  police  had  got  the  better  of  the 
dignified  commander  of  the  great  liner,  and  had  re- 
verted Sir  Peter  back  to  the  innocent  seadog,  put- 
ting him  at  the  mercy  of  a  common  bully.  But  by 
the  time  we  had  adjourned  to  the  smoke-room  of  a 
neighboring  hotel  the  sailor  was  himself  again. 

"I  won't  forget  that,  Mr.  Boon,"  he  said.  "That 
fellow  had  got  me  so  flummoxed  that  I  thought  I 
had  been  in  league  with  the  pirates." 

"You  ought  not  to  have  gone  to  the  Police  Bureau 
at  all,  Sir  Peter,"  I  told  him.  "You  should  have  re- 
ceived all  inquiries  on  your  own  deck." 

"I  wish  I  had,"  he  breathed.  "I'm  at  home 
there— and  even  my  King,  bless  him,  couldn't  order 
me  about!" 

I  was  mad  at  the  treatment  of  my  friends,  and 
we  went  to  the  hotel  stenographer,  who  took  down 
a  letter  to  the  Chief  of  Police,  in  which  I  ex- 
plained that  Sir  Peter  and  Dan  had  been  treated 
with  extreme  discourtesy,  and  that  apologies  were 
due  to  them.  They  got  letters  of  apology  next 
morning. 

The  incident,  however,  was  symptomatic  of  the 
exasperation  and  bewilderment  the  authorities  were 
experiencing.  The  newspapers  came  out  with  the 
most  wonderful  theories,  interesting  enough  to  read, 
but  not  the  least  helpful  to  those  whose  job  it  was 
to  solve  the  problem  of  the  raids.  The  country  was 
gone  over,  as  it  were,  with  a  fine  sieve,  without  the 
slightest  result.  The  land  and  air  police  were  bit- 
terly attacked  by  the  press,  and  even  the  naval  and 
military  authorities  came  in  for  condemnation.  As 


time  went  on  the  old  ground  had  been"  turned  over 
and  the  old  facts  redressed  so  often  that  the  public 
got  sick  of  the  affair,  and  skipped  any  items  in  the 
papers  that  referred  to  the  raids.  But  business  con- 
fidence remained  badly  shaken. 

Dan  Lamont's  investigations  of  the  gold  tarnish- 
ing resulted  in  his  finding  compounds  of  copper,  and 
a  hint  of  some  radio-activity.  This  seemed  to  me 
absurd,  but  it  fired  Danny's  enthusiasm,  since  he 
thought  it  indicated  that  the  raiders  had  discovered 
some  enlargement  of  the  science  of  radio-activity 
as  applied  to  the  atomic  theory.  He  had  the  terrier's 
tenacity,  and  he  went  after  the  thing  from  every 
possible  angle,  worrying  the  facts  and  himself  until 
he  developed  between  his  eyes  a  permanent  furrow 
of  concentration.  He  bored  after  an  explanation  of 
the  mysterious  sleep,  too,  and  discovered  at  least 
one  gas  which,  if  not  lethal  in  its  effect,  was  tre- 
mendously anaesthetizing  in  so  far  as  it  stunned  the 
olfactory  senses.  Properly,  it  might  have  been  called 
a  lachrymatory  gas,  for  its  effect  on  the  nose  made 
the  eyes  stream ! 

The  work  on  the  three  Merlins,  meantime,  pro- 
gressed rapidly  at  the  workshops  near  Gardiner 
Bay,  and  I  had  time  to  devote  to  social  obliga- 
tions. Dan  and  I  dined  two  or  three  times  with 
Lord  Almeric  and  Miss  Torrance,  and  we  all  had 
a  golfing-flying  party  at  Hazeldene  during  a  week- 
end. The  workshops  were  inspected  thoroughly, 
and  Milliken  and  Miss  Torrance  formed  a  curious 
compact  of  friendship  that  had  the  effect  of  making 
my  mechanic  go  about  with  a  ready  grin  on  his 
normally  formidable  countenance.  She  petted  him 
shamefully,  and  even  flattered  him  into  letting  her 
take  the  joy-stick  of  his  beloved  Merlin.  Nobody 
could  blame  Milliken  for  being  enslaved — Miss 
Torrance  had  a  way  of  deserving  any  little  service 
one  might  do  for  her.  Hazeldene  and  the  workshops 
were  dull  places  for  quite  a  while  after  she  went 
back  to  New  York  on  the  Monday. 

Louisville  Next! 

THE  establishment  at  Gardiner  Bay  was  not  a 
large  one,  but  it  was  fairly  well  equipped.  It  had. 
a  small  foundry  where  we  did  all  the  castings  for 
the  wings  and  body-work  of  our  planes  and,  of 
course,  we  had  a  moulding  shed.  There  was  a 
smithy  with  a  good  welding  plant,  drawing-office, 
pattern-maker's  shop,  fitting  shop,  and  in  addition 
to  our  mooring-shed  and  landing-stage,  we  had  a 
large  field  for  landing  with  a  one-bay  hangar. 

The  only  part  of  the  work  we  did  not  do  our- 
selves was  the  building  of  our  engines.  These  came 
from  a  little-known  factory  in  which  I  had  an  in- 
terest near  Pittsburgh.  Its  products  were  reliable 
to  a  degree,  and  beautifully  finished,  developing  a 
great  horse-power  in  ratio  to  their  weight.  We 
seated  these  engines  ourselves  on  the  machines  we 
constructed,  and  we  had  our  own  notions  of  fuel 
supply  and  cooling  system. 

With  this  small  establishment  working  at  top 
speed,  we  were  able  to  have  three  Merlins  lying  in 
the  fitting  shop  awaiting  their  engines  by  the 
Wednesday  of  the  second  week  after  the  Wall 
Street  affair.  This  last  piece  of  assembling  had  to 
wait.  It  was  all  to  our  advantage  that  our  power- 
units  should  undergo  the  very  strict  tests  that  the 
factory  at  Pittsburgh  considered  necessary  before 
passing  out  any  engine. 


138 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


There  was  one  thing  that  made  the  enforced 
wait  easier  to  bear.  I  had  more  time  to  spend 
with  Lord  Almeric  and  his  niece.  Their  visit  to 
New  York  was  nearing  its  end,  for  Lord  Almeric 
had  almost  finished  the  work  that  had  brought  him 
to  America.  Only  a  matter  of  business  with  the 
Treasury  in  Washington  remained  to  be  seen  to 
before  he  returned  to  England.  Miss  Torrance,  it 
appeared,  was  taking  advantage  of  the  trip  to  spend 
some  months  in  Washington  with  relatives  there, 
a  piece  of  news  that  seemed  pretty  good  to  me. 
It  sounded  such  a  waste  of  time  for  a  girl  like  her 
to  come  to  America  for  a  fortnight  Washington 
was  less  than  an  hour  away  for  a  machine  like  my 
Merlin. 

We  were  having  dinner  together  on  the  Saturday 
evening  before  going  to  a  theatre.  My  father  was 
there,  Lord  Almeric  of  course,  Dan  Lamont,  and 
Miss  Torrance.  I  was  telling  her  how  easy  it  would 
be  for  me  or  Milliken  to  run  down  to  Washington 
and  take  her  back  again  if  she  wanted  even  a  day 
in  New  York.  She  laughed  at  me. 

"There  doesn't  seem  any  end  to  your  American 
hospitality,"  she  said.  "Does  there,  uncle?" 

"American  hospitality,"  said  Lord  Almeric,  "is 
the  only  thing  known  to  work  more  than  twenty- 
four  hours  a  day." 

"No,  but  seriously,  Miss  Torrance,"  I  insisted. 
"I  think  it  would  be  a  real  good  plan  just  to  wire 
me  if  you  wanted  to  come  to  New  York.  'Boon, 
Gardiner,  L.  L:  Plane  wanted.  Torrance.' — just 
that,  and  within  an  hour  Milliken,  or  I,  or  Didcot 
would  be  fluttering  down  on  the  Potomac." 

"As  easy  as  that?" 

"As  easy  as  that,"  said  I.  "And  to  show  you  how 
easy  it  is,  I'm  going  to  ask  Lord  Almeric  to  let  me 
carry  you  both  to  Washington  to-morrow.  May  I, 
Lord  Almeric?" 

"My  dear  Mr.  Boon— you  must  not  make  us  im- 
pose on  your  good  nature  1" 

But  I  had  my  way.  At  seven  o'clock  on  the  Sun- 
day evening,  Milliken  and  myself  took  off  from  the 
Battery  in  the  Merlin  with  Lord  Almeric  and  Miss 
Torrance,  and  some  of  their  luggage.  Soon  after 
half-past  seven,  in  the  first-creep  of  dusk,  we  sighted 
the  pale  lights  of  the  aerodrome  and  seaplane  basin 
on  the  Potomac,  and  by  twenty  to  eight  we  had 
landed  our  passengers. 

"Don't  forget,  Miss  Torrance,  that  there  will  al- 
ways be  a  bus  at  your  disposal  whenever  you  want 
to  come  to  New  York,"  I  said. 

"I  won't  forget,  Mr.  Boon.  Good-bye,  and  my 
grateful  thanks  for  many  kindnesses,"  she  said. 
"Good-bye,  Mr.  Milliken !  Remember  that  you're  to 
coach  me  for  my  pilot's  certificate." 

Milliken  grinned  that  big  grin  of  his. 

"I'll  remember,  Miss  Torrance,"  he  said.  "It 
won't  take  you  long." 

"Good-bye,  Mr.  Boon,"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "I 
shall  see  you  on  my  return  to  New  York.  Good- 
bye, Milliken.  Best  wishes  for  the  success  of  your 
new  machines." 

They  stepped  into  a  government  automobile  that 
was  waiting  for  them,  and  drove  off. 

Funny  how  Milliken  sizes  people  up.  I  never 
thought  of  that,  and  I  sort  of  kicked  myself  for 
having  so  blatantly  offered  the  use  of  a  bus. 

"Dad  fetch  it,  Milliken!"  I  grumbled.  "What's 
the  good  of  making  friends  only  to  lose  them?  I 


don't  even  know  her  address.  It  seemed  inquisitive 
to  ask." 

"That's  all  right,  Mr.  Boon,"  said  Milliken  cheer- 
fully. "She's  a  niece  of  the  President  Everybody 
knows  his  telephone  number." 

"The  White  House!  How  did  you  know?" 

"She  told  me  coming  along.  I  have  to  send  her 
a  copy  of  your  book  on  flying." 

"Why  didn't  she  ask  me  for  one?  I'd  have  had 
one  specially  bound  for  her  " 

Milliken  looked  at  me  queerly. 

"Maybe  that's  why  she  asked  me  to  get  her  one, 
Mr.  Boon.  She's  a  very  independent  young  lady." 

We  locked  the  Merlin  up  in  a  private  shed.  It 
was  the  only  way  I  could  induce  my  mechanic  to 
leave  her  and  come  with  me  to  an  hotel,  though 
the  machine  was  fully  protected  in  the  matter  of 
patents.  After  dinner  we  both  went  along  to  look 
up  a  man  in  the  Air  Department,  and  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  the  evening  talking  shop.  We  got  back 
to  our  hotel  at  a  late  hour  and  went  to  bed. 

I  was  awakened  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning 
by  a  negro  bell-hop  bringing  me  a  cup  of  tea. 

"Papeh,  suh?"  he  said.  "They's  bin  anuthuh  of 
them  bank  robbin*  businesses  down  at  Louahville, 
suh — ma  home  town  as  wuz.  Them  robbers  is  shoh 
the  piratinest  white  men  ah  evah  see  " 

He  handed  me  an  extra  edition  that  still  smelled 
of  wet  printing  ink,  and  across  the  front  page  in 
staring  letters  ran  this  announcement: 

"THE  'PARNASSIC  TRICK  PULLED  ON  LOUISVILLE! 
Town  Pat  to  Sleep  While  Four  Beaks  Are  Robbed! 
Mysterious  Ridium  Gifts  Appear  Again." 

I  jumped  out  of  bed  and  ran  into  Milliken's  room. 

"Milliken!  Milliken!  The  raiders  have  been  at 
it  again  down  at  Louisville  this  morning!" 

Milliken,  who  was  shaving  himself  with  an  old- 
fashioned  razor,  turned  and  looked  at  me  calmly. 

"Gracious  Jinks!"  he  said— and  went  on  shaving. 

CHAPTER  VII 
To  Louisville 

FOR  a  space  I  gazed  at  my  mechanic  in  silence,  and 
nothing  was  to  be  heard  but  the  whisper  of  the 
razor  on  his  stubby  beard.    He  wiped  the  soap 
from  the  blade  and  turned. 
"When  do  we  start  for  Louisville?"  he  asked. 
"As  soon  as  we  have  had  breakfast,"  I  said  as  casu- 
ally—he was  not  going  to  pull  off  any  quiet  surprise 
on  me. 

We  were  down  at  the  seaplane-basin  by  nine  and 
after  filling  the  Merlin's  tanks  took  off  just  after  the 
hour.  We  gave  her  plenty  of  gas  and  covered  the 
eight  hundred  kilometres  to  Louisville  in  an  hour  and 
forty  minutes. 

It  was  useless  attempting  to  get  near  the  robbed 
banks,  for  the  streets  were  thronged  with  people,  packed 
tight  and  deep.  I  went  right  to  the  headquarters  of  the 
air  police,  where  there  was  a  chance  that  I  might  be 
known,  and  was  lucky  enough  to  find  the  local  com- 
mander an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  the  Aeronautical 
Research  Society,  of  which  I  was  an  office-holder. 

The  raid  on  Louisville  was  simply  the  Wall  Street 
and  Newark  affair  on  a  smaller  scale.  The  sleep  had 
come  upon  the  police  and  the  watchmen  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  the  strong-rooms  of  the  banks  had 
been  cut  open  by  the  same  means  as  that  used  in  New 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


139 


York.  Gold  to  the  amount  of  a  million  dollars  had 
been  taken  from  the  four  banks,  with  securities  to  an 
amount  not  stated,  but  these  last  had  been  found  at 
the  Post  Office  in  two  envelopes  addressed  to  local 
hospitals.  The  hospitals  also  were  the  recipients  of  a 
box  of  radium  each,  smaller  than,  but  otherwise  iden- 
tical with,  those  left  in  the  New  York  Post  Office. 

The  robbed  banks  might  roughly  be  put  in  groups  of 
two :  the  National  Bank  of  Kentucky  and  the  Fidelity 
and  Columbia  Trust  in  Main  Street,  and  the  Citizens'- 
Union  National  and  the  Louisville  Trust  in  Fifth 
Street.  It  might  have  been  possible  for  the  raiders  to 
have  effected  their  anaesthetizing  with  two  bombs  such 
as  I  had  imagined  had  been  dropped  in  New  York,  but 
though  I  looked  for  the  smears  of  glass  as  best  I  could 
in  the  dense  crowd,  I  was  disappointed. 

A  feature  of  this  raid  was  that  the  Post  Office  had 
been  affected  by  the  anaMthetic,  doubtless  because  it 
stood  across  the  way  in  Fourth  Street  from  a  large 
grocery  establishment  from  which  a  quantity  of  com- 
estibles has  been  abstracted.  In  this  food-store,  Messrs. 
Shapp  &  Zort,  money  had  been  left  to  pay  for  the  goods 
as  in  the  case  of  Schomberg's  in  Newark. 

When  we  arrived,  the  news  had  just  come  through 
that  a  gasoline  container  down  the  Ohio  to  the  west 
was  showing  a  deficiency  of  fifteen  hundred  litres  of 
aviation  spirit.  The  sequence  of  coincidence  was 
complete. 

"Can  you  give  me  any  information  about  the  street 
cars  that  were  running  at  the  time  of  the  raid  ?"  I  asked 
the  air  police  commander. 

"There  are  not  many  cars  run  on  Sunday  evening, 
but  the  few  that  were  out  were  stopped — notably  one 
down  Fourth  Street  to  the  levee,"  he  replied.  "The 
driver  in  falling  took  his  hand  off  the  safety  lever, 
which  of  course  automatically  brought  the  car  to  a 
standstill." 

"What  about  any  automobiles?" 

"We  can  only  find  three  that  were  in  the  affected  dis- 
tricts, and  they  seem  to  have  been  stopped  in  some 
way  quite  unfathomable." 

"What  sort  of  patrols  had  you  up  at  the  time,  com- 
mander?" 

"Only  one  scout,  who  had  been  out  towards  the 
Cumberlands  on  patrol  during  the  time  of  the  raid. 
He  came  back  in  the  ordinary  way  at  half-past  four, 
having  seen  nothing  to  report.  In  fact,  he  was  filling 
in  his  sheet  when  the  news  came  of  the  robberies.  I 
immediately  called  out  the  other  scouts,  and  three  of 
them  went  up.  I  then  radioed  the  news  to  all  stations — 
a  general  call — but  so  far  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
raiders." 

"Could  you  find  me  some  one  who  was  doped?"  I 
asked  him. 

"I  think  I  could  put  my  hand  on  a  land  cop,"  he 
said. 

We  went  to  the  police  station  and  found  a  man  who 
had  been  on  duty  in  the  affected  area  during  the  night. 
His  story  was  exactly  similar  to  that  of  my  New  York 
friend,  McGrath — no  noise  to  startle,  nor  any  smell — 
there  might  have  been  a  faint  luminosity,  he  couldn't 
say. 

"Had  you  any  gold  about  you  while  you  were  on 
duty?"  I  asked  him. 

"I  have  an  old  gold  dollar  I  keep  di  my  ticket  pocket 
for  luck,"  he  said.  "Why,  sir?" 

"Would  you  mind  letting  me  see  it?" 

He  went  over  to  the  side  of  the  cot  on  which  he 
had  been  lying  when  we  entered  the  station  dormitory, 


and  took  the  dollar  out  of  the  little  pocket  in  front  of 
his  tunic. 

"Well,  I'm  durned!"  he  exclaimed.  "The  thing's 
gone  rusty !" 

"I  expected  it  would  be,"  said.  L  "Thanks  very 
much." 

My  commander  friend  was  rather  astonished  at 
what  he  thought  was  acumen  on  my  part,  and  as  we 
went  down  to  the  levee,  I  told  him  a  few!  facts  about 
the  New  York  raid. 

"This  is  a  big  thing,  Mr.  Boon,"  he  remarked  as  we 
stepped  out  on  the  levee.  "It's  a  national  affair  " 

I  answered  without  much  thought. 

"I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  it  became  an  international 
affair." 

"International— hey?"  He  broke  off  as  he  saw  the 
Merlin.  "Say,  Mr.  Boon,  is  that  your  plane?" 

"That's  her.  My  latest  model,  the  Merlin,"  said  I, 
with  some  pride. 

"She's  the  prettiest  thing — and  looks  fast." 

"She  is  fast.  Fast  as  lightning."  And  I  told  him 
about  her. 

"Well,  Mr.  Boon,"  he  said.  "Hurry  up  and  sell  a 
copy  or  two  to  the  air  police.  If  all  you  think  about 
these  pirates  is  true,  we  can  do  with  a  few  like  her." 

After  a  close  inspection  of  the  plane,  we  said  good- 
bye, and  Milliken  and  I  took  off  up  the  river,  heading 
for  Pittsburgh.  We  wanted  to  see  about  our  new 
engines. 

It  was  one  o'clock  when  we  left  Louisville  and  we 
made  the  suburb  of  the  steel  town  shortly  after  two. 

While  we  inspected  the  engines,  a  boy  was  sent  out 
to  bring  us  in  a  quick  lunch,  which  Milliken  and  I  ate 
as  we  made  our  inspection.  The  engines  were  splendid, 
and  the  charts  of  their  tests  showed  a  wide  margin  of 
efficiency.  They  were  ready  to  be  crated  for  their 
journey.  I  got  an  idea,  and  turned  to  Milliken. 

"Say,  Milliken,"  I  said,  "why  don't  we  " 

" — take  them  with  us,"  he  finished  with  a  grin.  "I 
was  just  thinking  what  a  pity  it  was  to  leave  them  to 
the  mercy  of  the  railroads." 

"an  she  do  it?" 

"Can  she  do  it  I"  Milliken  repeated  scornfully. 
"Huh!" 

The  job  presented  no  great  difficulty.  We  unshipped 
the  limousine  top  of  the  Merlin,  then  laid  stout  battens 
across  the  floor  of  the  cabin.  The  three  engines  were 
brought,  one  after  the  other,  on  a  traveling  crane  into 
the  boat-shed,  and  were  lowered  into  the  open  cabin. 
To  preserve  our  flying  balance,  we  had  to  bring  them 
forward  almost  up  against  the  pilot's  seat.  The  job 
was  over  and  the  top  replaced  by  four  o'clock,  and  we 
set  off  for  Long  Island,  six  hundred  kilometres  away. 

A  Serious  Conference 

AS  we  passed  over  the  northern  spurs  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  dotted  with  little  towns  and  hamlets,  it 
seemed  to  me,  with  all  my  thoughts  on  the  raids,  that 
it  was  not  beyond  possibility  that  a  camouflaged  airship 
shed  could  be  concealed  among  their  woods  and  valleys. 
There  were  spaces  wide  enough,  sparsely  inhabited, 
where  the  secrecy  of  such  a  base  could  be  preserved  for 
a  good  length  of  time,  sufficient— except  for  accident, 
at  any  rate — to  enable  the  raiders  to  carry  out  quite 
a  number  of  operations  before  making  their  get-away. 

Remembering  the  wide  areas  of  thinly  populated  land 
in  this  modern  America,  even  within  a  few  hours' 
striking  distance  of  the  crowded  Eastern  states,  ft 
came  to  me  that  the  hunt  for  the  lair  of  the  marauders 


140 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


could  easily  be  a  long  one.  It  was  amazing  to  think 
that  the  airship  could  so  easily  descend  on  a  town 
without  observation  and  vanish,  so  to  speak,  in  thin 
air.  In  none  of  the  raids  so  far  had  there  been  any 
reliable  story  of  the  vessel  having  been  seen— except  for 
the  dream  of  the  besotted  Finn,  Klenski.  There  had 
been  the  usual  crop  of  lies,  fantastic  enough  to  defeat 
themselves,  but  the  clear,  unstrained  evidence  of  the 
credible  witness  was  lacking. 

Although  none  of  the  raids  had  been  attended  by 
loss  of  life,  there  was  something  terrible  in  the  silent 
approach  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  the  uncanny  power 
of  robbing  all  waking  folks  of  consciousness,  in  the 
rapid  operations  in  the  dead  quiet,  and  in  the  stealthy 
retreat  when  the  work  was  done.  It  did  not  need  the 
recollection  of  the  first  sight  of  the  helpless  Parnassic 
to  make  one's  hair  prickle  at  the  thought  of  the  mar- 
velous potency  in  the  hands  of  creatures  more  definitely 
malign  than  the  raiders  had  shown  themselves. 

As  I  thought  of  these  things,  a  whimsical  notion 
came  to  me,  and  I  turned  to  Milliken. 

"I  wonder  if  they  use  the  Boon  double  silencer?" 
I  said. 

"Shouldn't  be  surprised,"  he  returned,  picking  up  my 
thought  with  that  queer  quickness  of  his.  "There  was 
a  mechanic  down  at  the  Louisville  levee  who  had  been 
awake  all  night.  He  never  heard  the  slightest  hum." 

"Was  he  out  of  doors  during  the  time  of  the  raid 
at  all?" 

"Yes." 

"And  saw  nothing?" 
"Not  a  thing." 

"Did  you  ask  him  if  he  looked  up  at  the  sky?" 
"No,  I  didn't  bother.   He  was  an  air  mechanic,  I 
tell  you." 

I  had  to  grin  at  Milliken's  sparing  way  of  making 
enquiries.  He  knew  too  well  that  an  air  mechanic 
would  be  sure  to  glance  up  at  the  wind  indicator,  and 
every  now  and  then  look  for  any  change  in  the  weather. 

"Funny  thing  if  they're  using  my  silencer,"  I  said. 

"Huh  I"  said  Milliken,  and  I  had  to  guess  whether 
he  agreed  or  otherwise  with  my  sense  of  the  curious. 

We  made  Gardiner  Bay  before  six  o'clock,  and  turned 
all  hands  on  to  unloading  the  new  engines.  We 
shunted  them  through  the  sheds  on  the  overhead  elec- 
tro-magnets, and  deposited  them,  each  to  its  own  bed, 
on  the  new  planes  ready  for  fitting.  Milliken  was  not 
content  until  he  had  the  propeller  and  the  engine  cap 
fixed  on  one  of  the  buses,  just  to  get  an  idea  of  the 
general  effect. 

"Pretty,"  he  said  grudgingly,  "quite  pretty.  I'm 
glad  we  gave  them  green  bands,  though.  Wouldn't  like 
the  old  girl  to  see  them  making  free  with  her  own 
particular  bluel" 

"Say,  Milliken,"  I  protested,  "don't  get  absolutely 
stuck  on  the  old  girl,  as  you  call  her.  We're  going)  to 
design  even  a  better  bus  yet." 

He  looked  at  me  pityingly. 

"Some  people,"  he  remarked  in  a  general  sort  of 
way,  "are  like  Julius  Casar.  They  keep  on  bein'  am- 
bitious till  it  busts  them!" 

"That,"  I  reminded  him  cruelly,  "was  pretty  much 
what  you  said  when  I  first  suggested  the  Merlin  to 
you." 

"Aw,  well,"  said  he,  with  a  half -ashamed  grin,  "the 
Merlin's  a  peach."  Then  he  broke  off  thankfully. 
"Here's  your  dad  on  the  Seven." 

We  went  down  to  the  jetty  as  the  Seveti  was  brought 
to,  and  to  my  surprise  the  first  person  to  step  ashore 


was  not  my  father,  but  Lord  Almeric  Pluscarden. 

"Hullo,  Lord  Almeric  I"  I  said.  "Thought  you  were 
in  Washington?" 

"I  have  been  in  Washington,"  he  smiled,  "but  I  have 
had  to  come  back  in  a  hurry.  Your  father  kindly  sent 
the  seaplane  for  me." 

"Hullo,  Jimmy  I"  my  father  broke  in.  "Been  to 
Louisville?" 

I  nodded. 

"I  thought  you'd  go.  Come  along  home  to  dinner. 
Lord  Almeric  and  I  have  something  to  discuss  with 
you." 

The  three  of  us  got  into  the  roadster,  and  soon  were 
sitting  down  to  dinner  at  Hazeldene.  There  was  a 
touch  of  gravity  in  both  my  father  and  Lord  Almeric, 
though  they  spoke  without  restraint,  discussing  the 
Louisville  affair  very  keenly. 

"The  radium  settles  it,"  said  my  father.  "We're  up 
against  no  ordinary  crooks." 

"It's  a  big  thing,"  I  agreed. 

"There's  some  idea  underlying  the  whole  series," 
said  Lord  Almeric.  "It  is  hopeless  for  your  press  to 
attribute  it  all  to  a  revival  of  the  I.  W.  W.  idea.  Men 
who  give  gifts  of  radium  to  hospitals  and  research  in- 
stitutes are  hardly  of  that  kidney." 

"No,"  said  my  father. 

"What  would  you  say  was  the  notion  back  pi  it 
all?"  I  asked  them. 

"Heaven  alone  knows!"  the  old  man  burst  out.  "It 
could  not  have  come  at  a  more  awkward  time.  We 
have  enough  on  our  hands  already — eh,  Lord  Almeric?" 

"Truly."  Lord  Almeric  nodded  gravely. 

"I  had  better  take  my  son  into  our  confidence,  my 
lord,"  the  old  man  said  formally. 

"I  agree.  It  would  be  better." 

Trouble  Brewing 

THE  old  man  turned  to  me  and  gave  me  a  keen 
look. 

"Jimmy,"  he  said  quietly,  "Lord  Almeric  will  agree 
with  me  that  the  world  is  ready  to  seethe  over.  Un- 
less we  can  pull  back  in  time,  we  will  be  in  a  world 
war  again.  Let  me  show  you  our  situation  here. 
Japan,  over-populated  in  the  most  appalling  fashion, 
is  knocking  at  our  door  insistently,  wanting  some  of 
our  room.  The  British  dominions  are  closed  to  the 
yellow  immigrant,  and  Japan  is  prevented  by  the  world 
from  getting  all  she  wants  in  Siberia  and  China.  That 
pot  is  ready  to  boil  over. 

"Take  the  European  situation.  There  is  Germany 
snarling  over  new  Russia  like  a  dog  with  a  bone,  and — 
your  pardon,  Lord  Almeric  " 

"Not  at  all,  Boon,"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "And  Britain 
—ah— Jimmy,  if  I  may  take  the  privilege — Britain 
ready  to  fly  at  Germany's  throat  because  the  bone  is  a 
particularly  juicy  one." 

"Poland,  too,"  my  father  went  on,  "betrayed  for  the 
second  time  in  history  by  the  European  powers — and 
by  America,  who  ought  to  have  known  better.  France, 
again,  hardly  mended  yet  from  the  devastation  of 
'14-18,  naturally  sick  at  seeing  a  country  in  her  debt 
forging  ahead  of  her,  ready  to  take  up  the  sword 
against  her  old  enemy.  Then  there's  that  hotbed  of 
swaggering,  clashing  nationalities,  the  Balkans,  each 
new  state  more  bumptious  and  aggressive  than  the 
other.  I  tell  you,  Jimmy,  if  any  lesson  came  out  of 
that  war,  where  you  fought,  and  which  cost  so  much 
in  treasure  and  blood  simply  chucked  away,  the  world 
has  forgotten  it." 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


141 


"Why  on  earth  can't  they  all  settle  down  with  what 
they've  got  and  do  a  bit  of  work?"  I  asked.  "What's 
at  the  root  of  it  all  ?" 

"What  is  the  root  of  all  evil,  Jimmy?"  said  Lord 
Almeric. 

"That's  it,"  said  my  father.  "Money.  Each  nation 
thinks  the  other  is  making  more  than  itself,  and  that 
without  working  for  it.  The  great  cry  is  'unfair  com- 
petition'! If  one  nation  has  the  wit  to  think  ahead, 
to  take  the  right  line  of  development  to  meet  a  coming 
need  in  commerce,  its  neighbor  yells,  Unfair  com- 
petition!' " 

"I  know  little  of  things  international,"  said  I  to 
Lord  Almeric,  "except  concerning  my  own  line.  I 
hope  there's  no  chance  of  a  row  between  your  country 
and  ours,  sir?" 

"No,  thank  God.  There's  that  comfortable  streak 
in  us  both  that  makes  us  admire  a  successful  rival  in 
trade  rather  than  immediately  want  to  cut  his  throat. 
The  shopkeeping  instinct,  if  you  like — but  of  value  to 
our  sense  of  proportion.  But  we  may  find  ourselves 
on  opposite  sides,  willy-nilly,  if  some  of  the  hot-heads 
come  to  blows.  If  America  had  to  take  a  firm  hand 
with  Japan,  what  could  Britain  do?  If  she  sided  with 
Japan,  she  would  alienate  her  overseas  dominions,  who 
will  not  have  the  Jap  on  any  consideration.  If  we  in 
Britain  supported  America,  we  should  endanger  large 
financial  interests  we  have  in  the  East.  We  should 
lay  our  Eastern  possessions  at  the  mercy  of  the  yellow 
people,  for  new  China  would  be  dragged  in.  It  is  an 
exceedingly  complex  situation,  Jimmy,  and  not  one 
that  can  be  threshed  out  after  dinner." 

"Let  me  accept  it  as  threshed  out,"  said  I.  "Where 
do  you,  Lord  Almeric,  and  dad  come  into  it  ?' 

"On  the  money  side,"  said  the  old  man.  "There's 
lots  of  them  that  would  like  to  fight,  but  they  can't  do 
it  without  money.  And  there  are  numbers  of  people 
asking  for  loans  at  the  moment,  ostensibly  for  devel- 
opment work.  We  have  to  go  very  carefully.  Lord 
Almeric's  mission  in  America  has  been  for  the  forma- 
tion of  an  understanding  between  Britain  and  our 
people  as  to  how  far  we  may  go  in  this  or  that  direc- 
tion. In  our  discussions — between  an  American  group 
of  financial  firms  and  banks  and  an  English  group,  as 
represented  by  Lord  Almeric — we  have  come  upon  a 
new  situation  that  may  well  upset  the  whole  arrange- 
ment. It  may  lead  us  into  a  big  war,  nominally  through 
one  with  Japan." 

"Good  Lord !" 

"Now,  Lord  Almeric  has  to  get  to  London  in  quick 
time,  to  put  the  case  before  his  people.  There  can  be 
no  question  of  cabling  it.  We  did  not  want  you  to 
work  in  the  dark  " 

"I  don't  mind  working  in  the  dark,  dad.  You  want 
me  to  get  Lord  Almeric  to  England  ?" 

"You've  got  it,  Jimmy.  I  have  pledged  Lord  Almeric 
my  word  that  you  will  get  him  to  London  by  some 
means  or  other  by  Saturday." 

"I  wondered  if  you  could  put  me  aboard  some  ship 
reaching  Southampton  on  Friday  morning,"  said  Lord 
Almeric.  "I  am  ashamed  to  throw  myself  into  your 
hands  so  helplessly — but  your  father  insisted." 

"Dad  was  quite  right,  Lord  Almeric,"  said  I.  "You'd 
be  leaning  on  a  broken  reed  to  try  the  Transatlantic 
Aviation.  Their  weekly  plane  doesn't  leave  until  Friday 
morning,  and  it  would  be  the  early  hours  of  Monday 
morning  before  you  reached  London.  Clumsy  brute! 
— for  all  its  four  engines!" 

"I  thought  perhaps  you  could  overtake  the  Thcssalk 


or  the  Purthalia,"  said  his  lordship. 

"Let  me  see."  I  searched  for  a  shipping  list. 

"The  Thessalic  sailed  on  Friday  night,  and  is  due  to 
reach  Southampton  next  Friday  morning.  The  Pur- 
thalia left  last  night,  Sunday,  and  reaches  Southampton 
next  Sunday  morning,  so  she  washes  out. 

"Suppose  we  started  to-morrow.  The  Thessalic  will 
be  over  three  days  out,  more  when  we  reach  her. 
Lord!  She'll  be  well  over  three  thousand  kilometres 
out  when  we  overtake  her!  I  might  as  well  fly  you 
all  the  way,  sir." 

'"But  surely  that  would  be  unnecessary — I  could  not 
think  " 

"Don't  you  see,  sir?  The  whole  distance  is  under 
six  thousand  kilometres.  I  should  have  to  fly  about 
seven  thousand  on  the  double  journey  to  the  ship  and 
back.  I  had  better  fly  you  the  whole  way.  It  will  give 
me  time  to  put  the  Merlin  in  first-class  order,  anyhow. 
I'll  have  to  ship  new  tanks  for  extra  oil  and  gasoline." 

"Will  the  Merlin  do  it?"  the  old  man  asked. 

"You  bet  you,  dad.  In  thirteen  hours.  We  leave 
here  on  Thursday  evening  before  dinner,  and  we  reach 
Battersea  aerodrome  at  one  o'clock  on  Friday,  allowing 
for  the  difference  in  time.  How  will  that  do,  Lord 
Almeric?" 

"Splendid !  I  cannot  find  words  to  thank  you,  Jimmy 
— or  you,  Boon — you  overwhelm  me  with  kindness  " 

"We  won't  say  anything  about  that,"  said  my  father 
gruffly.  "Will  we,  son?" 

"Surely  not,"  said  I.  "I'll  be  glad  to  give  the  Merlin 
such  a  good  test.  All  you  have  to  do,  Lord  Almeric,  is 
to  regard  yourself  as  so  much  make-weight  cargo." 

"Heaven  forbid!"  Lord  Almeric  laughed.  "You 
might  find  it  necessary  to  jettison  me!" 

"I'd  jettison  the  Merlin  first!"  I  blundered,  redden- 
ing at  my  apparent  rudeness  to  a  man  so  courteous. 

"Heaven  forbid  that,  too !"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "The 
sea  police  might  arrest  us  in  midair  for  having  no 
visible  means  of  support !" 

He  put  an  arm  on  my  shoulder  and  we  went  to  the 
billiard  room,  where  his  lordship  conscientiously  col- 
lected a  nice  selection  of  the  Boon  dollars  by  thoroughly 
beating  my  dad  and  me  at  pool  and  snooker.  I  went 
to  bed  early,  for  I  intended  to  get  some  work  done 
before  breakfast,  and  left  my  elders  trying  trick  shots. 

I  was  just  dropping  off  to  sleep  when  my  father 
came  into  mv  room. 

"Hullo,  dad!"  I  said.  "What's  the  matter?" 

"Nothing  much — just  wanted  to  say  good-night,  son." 

"Good-night,  dad  " 

"You  know,  Jimmy,"  he  said  slowly,  "I'm  tickled  to 
death  with  my  own  son  " 

"That's  funny,  dad,"  I  sat  up  to  say.  "I  was  just 
thinking  I  was  sort  of  proud  of  my  own  father." 

"Oh!"  said  he.    "Well — good-night,  Jimmy." 

"Good-night,  dad." 

Across  the  Atlantic 

THE  next  two  days  were  spent  in  fixing  the  engines 
in  the  new  Merlin  and  in  making  tests  of  them. 
Milliken  and  I  were  in  the  air  a  good  deal,  trying  all 
sorts  of  fool  tricks  to  prove  the  design  no  good,  but 
we  could  find  no  fault  in  it.  We  had  a  winner,  all 
right. 

In  the  meantime,  the  old  Merlin  was  being  tuned  up 
— not  that  she  needed  much  tuning — and  the  work  of 
putting  in  the  extra  tanks  for  the  Atlantic  flight  went 
ahead.  , 

Lord  Almeric's  luggage  was  brought  over  by  Didcot 


142 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


on  the  Seven,  and  everything  was  put  in  order.  We 
rigged  up  a  pair  of  collapsible  bunks  from  the  side 
walls  of  the  cabin,  so  that  our  passenger  could  sleep  if 
he  wanted  to,  and  so  that  Milliken  and  I  could  lie  down 
in  our  off  spells.  Then  we  had  a  little  vacuum-box 
for  hot  food,  and  everything  necessary  for  feeding 
in  comfort. 

At  seven  o'clock  on  the  Thursday  evening,  we  said 
good-bye  to  my  father  and  Dan  Lamont,  who  had  come 
over  to  see  us  off,  and  to  a  great  "Rah-rah  I"  from  the 
staff  of  the  workshops,  we  shot  off  across  the  bay,  the 
Merlin  quietly  picking  up  into  her  cruising  speed  of 
four-fifty  kilometres  an  hour. 

The  weather  report  had  given  warning  of  low  storms 
off  the  coast,  and  we  climbed  high  to  ride  over  them, 
so  there  was  not  much  to  see  below  us.  At  three  thou- 
sand odd  metres  up,  we  came  into  a  side  wind  from  the 
north,  fairly  strong,  which  must  have  given  us  a  lot  of 
drift.  But  the  Merlin  was  flying  easy,  and  there  was 
no  pitching  to  speak  of. 

Milliken  relieved  me  at  eight,  and  I  joined  Lord 
Almeric  in  some  food,  for  we  had  not  dined  before 
leaving.  He  was  a  charming  companion,  who  talked 
interestingly,  and  had  the  knack  of  making  one  talk 
as  well.  It  seemed  that  there  were  few  corners  of  the 
earth  he  had  not  visited,  and  his  outlook  on  life  was 
correspondingly  wide.  There  was  nothing  insular  about 
him.  With  his  open  collar  and  its  old-fashioned  broad 
silk  cravat,  of  the  shape  the  English  call  "Ascot,"  he 
looked  what  he  was,  a  very  distinguished  Englishman 
of  the  best  type,  but  the  curious  thing  was  that  he 
appeared  as  much  at  home  in  the  cabin  of  the  Merlin 
as  he  would  have  been  in  his  own  library. 

When  I  spelled  Milliken  so  that  he  could  have  some- 
thing to  eat,  Lord  Almeric  continued  his  talk  with  him, 
charming  my  mechanic  into  an  unwonted  loquacity.  It 
was  gently  done,  and  it  had  its  reward,  for  Milliken 
when  he  did  talk  talked  very  much  to  the  purpose. 
Over  my  shoulder  I  heard  more  of  Milliken's  life  laid 
bare  to  Lord  Almeric  in  half  an  hour,  than  I  had  got 
from  the  mechanic  in  the  years  we  had  been  working 
together. 

"Now,  if  you'll  excuse  me,  sir,"  I  heard  Milliken 
say,  by  and  by,  "I'll  just  chuck  some  of  this  stuff  over- 
board and  wash  up." 

"Let  me  bear  a  hand,"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "You 
wash  and  I'll  wipe  I" 

"If  it  comes  to  that,  sir,"  said  Milliken,  "you  wash 
and  I'll  wipe.  I  know  better  than  you  do  where  to 
stow." 

"Good.  This  the  grease  remover?"  Lord  Almeric 
had  taken  off  his  jacket. 

"That's  the  stuff,  sir.   And  here's  a  dish-cloth." 

A  rush  of  cold  air  at  this  moment  made  me  turn 
round.  Milliken  had  pried  up  the  hatch  with  a  fork 
through  the  ring,  and  was  scraping  the  refuse  through 
the  opening. 

"All  the  world  is  my  garbage  can,  which  with  this 
fork  I  will  open,"  Lord  Almeric  laughed. 
"Ah,"  said  Milliken.   "That's  old  Pistol,  isn't  it?" 
"Slightly  amended  " 

They  fell  to  discussing  Shakespeare,  and  by  the  time 
they  had  finished  their  chores  and  were  lying  down 
on  the  bunks  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  gangway, 
they  were  pooh-poohing  the  Bacon-Shakespeare  theory. 
They  then  fell  to  talking  of  dry-points  and  etchings. 
I  could  not  help  thinking  the  subjects  curious  common 
ground  for  a  great  banker  and  a  fine  mechanic  to 
meet  on. 


Milliken  relieved  me  at  midnight,  our  time,  and  I 
took  my  turn  on  the  bunk. 

"Where  are  we  now,  Jimmy?"  asked  Lord  Almeric 
sleepily. 

"Just  clearing  the  Newfoundland  Bank,  we  should 
be — four  hundred  odd  kilometres  west,  a  point  or  two 
south  of  Cape  Race." 

"Splendid!"  murmured  his  lordship  and  fell  asleep, 
an  example  I  proceeded  to  follow. 

It  was  bright  day  when  I  woke  to  relieve  Milliken, 
four  o'clock  by  our  timepiece,  and  about  seven  in  the 
longitude  we  were  passing. 

"Passed  the  Purthalia  about  fifteen  minutes  back," 
said  Milliken.  "I'd  say  a  hundred  kilometres  to  the 
north." 

"Then  we've  drifted  a  bit,  but  not  so  much  as  I 
expected." 

"Ah-hah !"  he  yawned.  "Wind  shif ted  round  about 
two — blew  us  back  again." 

He  fetched  me  a  cup  of  coffee,  and  then  turned  in. 

Two  hours  later  Ireland  came  up  like  a  smudge  of 
blue  smoke  on  the  horizon  to  port,  and  a  few  minutes 
later  the  Lizard  widened  out  into  the  spear-head  of 
Cornwall  and  Devon. 

I  can  never  fly  high  over  England.  I  love  to  see  the 
patchwork  of  fields,  the  dark  purple  of  her  woods,  and 
the  tiny  white  ribbons  of  her  roads,  the  slender  threads 
of  silver  that  mark  her  waterways.  I  had  to  come 
down  close  enough  to  get  the  shape  of  her  red  roofs, 
all  the  jolly,  homey  villages,  nestling  in  wooded  hol- 
lows or  sprawled  over  low  downs,  each  with  its  church 
spire  or  tower  rising  from  a  patch  of  green,  green 
sward,  white  speckled  with  the  headstone  above  her 
ancient  dead.    It  was  April  in  England  then. 

A  Night  in  London 

THERE  was  no  time  to  saunter,  but  I  wanted  fo. 
We  had  to  get  our  passenger  into  London  by  one 
o'clock,  English  time.  Lord  Almeric  was  astir,  and 
had  made  an  astonishingly  neat  toilet.  He  was  drink- 
ing coffee. 

"This  is  the  first  time  I  have  been  robbed  of  five 
hours  in  a  day,"  he  said.  "I  am  certain  I  shall  order 
eggs  and  bacon  at  lunch  from  force  of  habit." 

Big  Ben  on  Parliament  House  chimed  out  the  quarter 
to  one  as  we  dropped  into  the  basin  at  Battersea,  and 
before  he  spoke  again  at  the  hour,  we  were  stepping 
into  the  taxi  that  was  to  take  us  to  Lord  Almeric's 
house  in  Knightsbridge.  But  I  don't  think  that  Mil- 
liken was  very  easy  in  his  mind  that  the  Merlin  was 
safe  even  in  the  lock-up  shed  in  which  she  was  berthed. 

Lord  Almeric  would  not  hear  of  either  Milliken  or 
myself  going  to  an  hotel.  He  insisted  that  we  make 
his  house  our  own.  Milliken  tried  hard  to  refuse,  but 
his  lordship  effectually  stopped  all  protest.  He  led 
us  to  a  little  nest  of  rooms,  not  separate  from  the  house, 
but  somehow  possessing  an  individuality — if  one  may 
use  the  word— of  their  own.  He  opened  the  door  of 
a  tidy,  mannish  sitting-room. 

"I  had  a  boy  at  one  time,  Jimmy,"  he  said  quietly. 
"He  was  killed  at  Messines.  These  are  his  rooms — 
just  as  they  used  to  be  when  he  lived  in  them.  Noth- 
ing has  been  touched,  though  my  servants  keep  them 
warmed  and  aired.  There  are  two  bedrooms  and  a 
bathroom — through  there — and  another  living-room.  I 
have  had  them  made  ready  for  you  both.  I  shall  be 
very,  very  glad  if  you  and  Milliken  will  occupy  them 
while  you  remain  in  London." 

I  heard  a  joint  in  Milliken's  hand  crack  softly  as  his 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


143 


fist  clenched. 

"My  only  fear  is  that  I  shall  be  a  poor  host,"  Lord 
Almeric  went  on.  "My  time  will  be  much  occupied, 
as  you  will  understand,  Jimmy — in  fact,  I  must  be 
back  in  harness  at  once.  I  have  a  conference  in  the 
City  at  three,  and  other  in  Westminster  at  six.  I 
question  if  I  shall  be  back  until  late  at  night.  My 
people  will  attend  to  all  your  wants,  and  will  serve 
your  meals  here.  If  you  should  think  of  going  to  a 
theatre,  I'm  certain  that  Milliken  would  like  the  pro- 
duction of  'Twelfth  Night'  at  the  Haymarket.  Bunter, 
my  butler,  will  get  tickets  for  you.  Now  I  must  go. 
Pray  excuse  me.  I  shall  hope  to  see  you  to-night.' 

He  went  out,  leaving  us  there.  Milliken  and  I  looked 
at  each  other  in  silence  for  a  space. 

"1  didn't  want  to  stop  in  his  lordship's  house,  Mr. 
Boon,"  Milliken  said  slowly.  "But  when  he  asks  us 
to  use  his  dead  boy's  rooms,  he  gives  me  the  one  thing 
I  couldn't  refuse.  It  must  mean  a  lot  to  him — this." 

"You  bet  you,  Milliken." 

"And  I  thought  lords  and  such-like  all  bunk !  That 
one,"  he  nodded  to  the  closed  door —  "that  one  makes 
me  see  I've  been  a  fool!" 

We  bathed  and  changed,  and  lunch  was  brought  to 
us  in  another  of  the  rooms.  The  butler  appeared  to 
see  if  we  were  all  right,  and  we  let  him  get  tickets 
for  us. 

"Can  you  tell  me,"  I  asked  him,  "where  I  might  find 
files  of  the  London  daily  papers  for  a  week  or  two 
past?" 

"In  the  small  library  downstairs,  sir.  We  keep  files 
of  the  Times,  Morning  Post,  and  Telegraph  and  of  a 
number  of  the  financial  journals.  May  I  show  you 
the  room,  sir?" 

"Please." 

I  found  that  the  London  press  had  treated  the  New 
York  raids  in  daily  reports  that  never  got  over  half  a 
column.  The  Parmssic  had  the  honor  of  a  full  column 
on  the  first  day,  and  dwindled  to  half  a  column  on  the 
next,  while  the  Wcstbury  was  squeezed  into  twelve 
lines.  Louisville  was  almost  crowded  out  by  two  pages 
of  parliamentary  crisis,  and  a  long  murder  trial.  That 
which  had  taken  all  America  by  the  ears,  seemed  to 
matter  little  in  England.  It  was,  according  to  a  note 
in  the  Tims,  purely  an  American  concern. 

We  saw  nothing  of  Lord  Almeric  until  late  at  night, 
when  we  found  him  waiting  for  us  to  arrive  from  the 
theatre.  We  sat  for  an  hour  or  two  round  the  fire  in 
his  sitting-room,  yarning,  and  drinking  some  of  the 
best  whiskey  I  have  ever  tasted.  It  must  have  been 
close  on  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  we  went 
to  bed. 

CHAPTER  VIII 
A  Raid  on  London 

SOMEWHERE  in  the  house  a  telephone  bell  was 
ringing  insistently.  It  rang  in  long  peals,  and 
just  when  I  would  think  it  had  stopped  for  good 
it  would  begin  again,  more  furiously  than  ever.  I  put 
my  hand  under  my  pillow  for  my  watch,  then  switched 
on  the  light  over  my  head.  It  was  half-past  three. 
The  bell  still  shrilled  through  the  house.  Then  came 
the  sound  of  a  door  opening,  and  the  bell  was  stopped 
by  the  murmur  of  a  voice.  Presently  came  the  shuffling 
of  feet,  and  somewhere  nearer  at  hand  another  voice 
took  up  the  murmuring.  There  was  silence  again. 
Firm  footsteps  now  came  masterfully  to  my  door,  and 
a  knock. 
"Yes.  Come  in!"  I  cried. 


The  handle  turned,  and  Lord  Almeric  entered, 
wrapped  in  a  dressing-robe. 

"Something  has  happened  at  the  Bank,"  he  said. 

"Good  Heavens,  sir!"  I  exclaimed.  "You  don't 
think  ?" 

"I'm  inclined  to  think  it  is — our  friends  of  the 
Parmssic — or  others  of  the  tribe." 

"But— but  in  London!  It's  incredible,  sir!" 

"We  live  in  an  incredible  age,  Jimmy.  Would  you 
like  to  come  with  me  to  the  City?  I'm  going  there  at 
once." 

"Sure,  I'll  come,"  said  I,  and  jumped  out  of  bed. 

While  I  was  dressing  (Lord  Almeric  had  gone  off 
to  give  orders  for  his  car,  and  to  dress)  Milliken  ap- 
peared in  my  doorway. 

"Anything  the  matter,  Mr.  Boon?"  he  asked. 

I  told  him. 

"Jinks!"  he  said.  "Want  me  with  you?" 

"Not  unless  you're  keen  to  come  " 

"I'm  not,"  said  he  shortly. 
_  "Very  well,  then.  If  I  don't  get  back  by  breakfast 
time,  go  over  to  Battersea  by  yourself.    Hire  what 
mechanics  you  want  for  the  Merlin,  and  get  her  over- 
hauled. Have  you  any  British  money?" 

"Oh,  yes.  Didcot  changed  a  hundred  dollars  for  me 
in  New  York.  Is  it  two  and  a  half  of  these  florin 
things  to  the  dollar?" 

"As  near  as  doesn't  matter.  Two  florins  and  eight 
pennies  are  more  like  the  sum." 

"AH  right.  Ill  get  back  to  bed." 

And  he  did,  with  no  further  comment. 

There  was  little  stir  about  the  streets  as  we  sped 
Citywards,  except  for  great  trucks  of  fruit  and 
vegetables,  the  big  horses,  pulling  them,  plodding  along 
sagaciously  with  little  or  no  guidance  from  drowsy  or 
even  sleeping  drivers.  The  asphalted  streets  were  wet 
from  recent  washing,  and  here  and  there  we  came  upon 
sweeping  machines  with  their  wide  rotary  brushes 
working  anglewise  to  the  gutters.  Now  and  then  we 
would  pass  a  solitary  policeman,  or  a  pair  of  them, 
their  rubber  capes  glistening  under  the  street  lamps. 
Even  this  slight  activity  slackened  by  the  time  we 
reached  the  Strand.  Then  we  came  to  Fleet  Street, 
where  the  newspaper  offices  were  ablaze  with  light. 

"They  have  not  received  the  news  yet,"  Lord  Almeric 
said  softly.  "If  they  had  you  would  see  the  reporters 
streaking  towards  St.  Paul's  like  hornets  from  a 
nest." 

We  whizzed  up  Ludgate  Hill  and  passed  under  the 
shadow  of  St.  Paul's.  The  City  was  like  a  place  of 
the  dead. 

"It  looks  like  the  stillness  of  an  actual  raid,  Lord 
Almeric,"  I  whispered. 

"Yes — but  the  City  is  always  like  this  at  night. 
Thronged  during  the  day,  and  a  jam  of  traffic— but 
like  Herculaneum  for  stillness  after  eight  o'clock." 

At  the  corner  of  the  Mansion  House,  a  policeman 
stopped  the  car  and  peered  in  at  us,  flashing  his  torch. 
When  he  saw  Lord  Almeric  he  saluted  and  waved  us 
on.  Policemen  were  streaming  into  the  open  space  in 
front  of  the  Royal  Exchange.  We  pulled  up  outside 
the  Bank  of  England,  and  a  policeman  opened  the  door 
of  the  automobile.  A  white-faced  inspector  met  us 
inside  the  building,  and  he  was  immediately  joined  by 
a  subaltern  of  one  of  His  Majesty's  Footguards— the 
Coldstream,  I  think  it  was.  This  officer  was  as  white- 
faced  as  the  policeman,  but  keeping  a  stiff  upper  lip  in 
spite  of  his  obvious  misery. 

"This  is  a  bad  business,  my  lord,"  said  the  inspector. 


144  AIR  WOND 

"The  Bank  of  England  robbed!" 

Lord  Almeric  nodded  and  turned  to  the  young 
guardsman. 

"You're  Guy  Pennefether,  aren't  you?"  he  asked. 
"Yes,  Lord  Almeric." 

"Permit  me  to  introduce  a  friend  of  mine,  Mr.  James 
Boon.  Mr.  Guy  Pennefether— Inspector  Trueman. 
Now,  let  us  go  to  your  quarters,  Pennefether.  You'll 
come  also,  inspector.  You  shall  tell  me  quietly  what 
has  happened,  then  we  shall  inspect  the  damage." 

The  Guardsman's  Tale 

WT^HERE  isn't  much  to  tell,  Lord  Almeric,"  said 

X  the  young  fellow,  when  we  had  reached  one  of 
the  rooms  occupied  by  the  officers  of  the  nightly  guard. 
This  was  a  neat  little  mahogany-panelled  dining-room 
in  the  heart  of  the  building. 

"Sit  down,  Pennefether,  and  compose  yourself," 
Lord  Almeric  said  kindly.  "You,  too,  inspector.  I 
don't  wonder  you  are  shaken.  Jimmy,  find  a  seat  for 
yourself,  please." 

I  took  a  chair  near  the  table  that  stood  in  the  middle 
of  the  room. 

"Now,  Mr.  Pennefether." 

"I  haven't  much  to  say,  Lord  Almeric.  We  took 
over  at  the  usual  time.  The  sentries  were  mounted  in 
the  usual  way,  inspected,  changed,  all  according  to 
orders.  Nothing  unusual  happened  until  half-past  mid- 
night, when  my  sergeant  came  into  the  room  here  with 
me  after  doing  the  rounds.  I  had  asked  him  some- 
thing about  one  of  the  men  in  my  platoon— as  a  matter 
of  fact  it  was  about  his  chance  of  winning  the  cruiser- 
weight  championship  of  the  brigade — when  suddenly 
Sergeant  Withers  stopped  speaking.  'What's  the 
matter,  Withers?'  I  said.  He  blinked  at  me.  'Nothing, 
sir,  nothing,'  he  said;  'something  passed  over  me — 
queerlike.'  Then  something  queer  told  hold  of  me.  I 
began  to  see  the  sergeant  as  through  a  haze.  He  got 
further  and  further  away,  his  voice  becoming  fainter — 
then  he  seemed  to  crumple  up — like  a  concertina.  I 
don't  remember  anything  more  .  .  .  until  I  woke  up. 

"I  had  fallen  asleep,  or  become  unconscious,  spread 
across  the  table  and  still  sitting  in  the  chair.  "  My 
watch  was  in  front  of  me— and  to  ray  horror,  it  pointed 
to  a  quarter  to  three.  I  had  been  asleep  for  a  full  two 
hours.  I  got  up  in  a  hurry  to  make  for  the  door,  when 
I  stumbled  across  my  sergeant,  who  was  lying  stretched 
on  the  floor  1" 

"A  moment,  Mr.  Pennefether,"  I  said.  "What  metal 
is  your  watch  ?" 

*Eh?  Oh,  gold— gold— a  little  plain  watch  I  wear 
with  my  uniform  " 

"May  I  see  it,  please?" 

"It  is  still  lying  on  the  table  beside  you  there— under 
that  paper." 

I  found  it  and  turned  it  over.    I  nodded  to  Lord 
Almeric 
"Tarnished,"  I  said. 

"Ah,"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "Go  on,  Pennefether." 

"Naturally,  I  was  bewildered.  I  stooped  over 
Withers  and  shook  him.  He  woke  up  without  effort, 
and  presently  was  on  his  feet,  stammering  out 
excuses.  .  .  ." 

The  rest  of  the  young  guardsman's  story  was  as  we 
expected.  He  had  rushed  out  into  the  corridor,  and 
had  found  all  his  men  fast  asleep,  his  sentries  fallen 
at  their  posts  with  their  rifles  beside  them.  His  next 
thought  was  for  the  vaults.  The  big  steel  doors  had 
been  cut  open  and  the  interior  of  the  vaults  were  strewn 


IR  STORIES 

with  the  wreckage  of  cases. 

In  the  matter  of  the  Bank  of  England,  the  inspector 
could  bring  up  no  new  point.  He  had  been  wakened 
by  one  of  his  men,  having  fallen  asleep  without  any 
premonitory  symptoms,  and  on  going  his  rounds  he  had 
found  all  his  points  asleep  or  on  the  verge  of  waking. 
He  had  joined  Mr.  Pennefether  at  the  vault  door.  But 
he  told  us  that  three  of  the  joint  stock  banks  in  Old 
Broad  Street  had  been  forced  open  and  their  strong- 
rooms cleared. 

"Our  friends  hold  to  their  thorough  methods,"  said 
Lord  Almeric  to  me.  "There  is  a  scope  in  their  ras- 
cality that  takes  the  breath  away." 

He  turned  to  the  young  officer  of  the  Guards. 

"It  is  useless  to  beg  you  not  to  be  concerned,  Penne- 
fether," he  said  gently.  "That  you  must  inevitably  be. 
But  I  beg  you— and  you  also,  inspector— to  be  rid  of 
the  idea  that  you  are  in  any  way  culpable.  You  could 
not  have  foreseen  this  event,  nor  could  you  have  helped 
yourselves  if  you  had.  The  blame,  if  any,  attaches  to 
me.  I  should  have  taken  steps  to  protect  the  Bank 
from  this  outrage.  Come— let  me  see  the  extent  of 
the  damage." 

In  the  Bank  premises,  everything  was  scrupulously 
neat  and  tidy,  until  we  came  to  the  vault  door,  and  that 
had  a  section  cut  through  it.  It  was  big  enough  for 
Lord  Almeric  to  go  through,  and  I  followed  him. 

"They  have  not  been  greedy,"  said  he.  "They  have 
taken  only  a  million  pounds  sterling,  Jimmy— and  have 
left  the  remainder.  Now,  let  us  see  how  they  have 
treated  our  securities." 

He  turned  to  a  side-door,  which  also  had  been  treated 
with  the  flame.  Inside  the  room  was  a  heap  of  mould- 
ering papers,  and  from  this  there  rose  a  pungent  smell. 
The  papers  were  securities,  and  they  had  been  destroyed 
beyond  recognition  by  having  had  acid  poured  over 
them  I 

"The  wantonness  of  it !"  cried  Lord  Almeric.  "The 
sheer  damned  wanton  uselessness  of  it!  Ur-r-r!  The 
theft  of  the  gold  I  can  understand— but  this!— this 
means  months  of  work — chaos — endless  useless  bother 
and  vexation !" 

"Does  it  represent  much  money,  sir?"  I  ventured. 

"Millions.  I  cannot  say  how  much.  It  will  be  re- 
coverable, the  greater  part  of  it,  perhaps.  But  when  I 
think  of  the  complications — the  damned  messiness  and 
bother — ur-r-r!" 

He  recovered  himself  quickly. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  Jimmy.  I'm  making  an  exhibi- 
tion of  myself — but  the  thing  is  so  unpardonably  stupid. 
Come,  we'll  go  to  my  room  and  think  this  out." 

"Your  pardon.  Lord  Almeric.  There's  something 
I'd  like  to  do  before  the  crowd  gets  about.  Could  you 
put  me  in  charge  of  a  police  officer,  while  I  go  snooping 
round  to  find  out  if  the  thing  links  up  with  Wall 
Street?" 

"Why,  of  course.  Would  you  oblige  me  by  taking 
Mr.  Boon  round,  inspector,  and  seeing  that  he  is  not 
interfered  with?" 

"Very  good,  my  lord." 

Conjectures 

I WENT  off  with'  the  inspector  and  got  outside  the 
buildings.  I  hunted  round  the  streets  about  the 
Bank  in  comparative  quiet.  The  London  police  are 
nothing  if  not  efficient,  and  they  had  drawn  round  the 
district  a  cordon  that  was  impassable.  Only  a  few 
civilians  were  about  the  streets. 
I  found  four  star-shapped  splatters  of  powdered 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


145 


glass  on  the  Exchange  side  of  the  Bank,  and  two  in  a 
sort  of  courtyard  within  the  buildings.  They  were 
perfect  in  shape,  and  showed  me  what  the  smears  I 
had  found  round  Wall  Street  would  have  been  but  for 
the  crowds  that  had  trampled  them  about.  We  went 
along  Old  Broad  Street,  and  there  I  found  traces  of 
the  powdered  glass,  three  splashes,  opposite  the  robbed 
banks.  I  thought  it  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  do 
anything  further  in  the  way  of  investigation.  I  had 
seen  enough  to  convince  me  that  it  was  the  Wall  Street 
and  Pornassic  gang,  or  another  allied  in  method.  My 
next  move,  I  thought,  would  be  to  get  an  ocean  track 
chart. 

On  my  return  to  the  Bank,  I  found  Lord  Almeric 
closeted  with  a  military-looking  man,  alert  and  keen  of 
manner. 

"This  is  Mr.  James  Boon,  Sir  Thomas,"  said  Lord 
Almeric.  "General  Sir  Thomas  Basildon,  Jimmy,  chief 
of  the  Criminal  Investigation  Department." 

We  shook  hands. 

"I  have  wanted  to  meet  you,  Mr.  Boon,"  said  the 
newcomer  kindly.  "I  have  known  your  work  for  sev- 
eral years — and  admired  it." 

"That's  very  kind  of  you,  sir.  Are  you  the  General 
Basildon  who  was  connected  with  the  British  Air 
Force?" 

"I  am." 

"Then  you  have  something  in  your  old  line  here.  Sir 
Thomas,"  said  L  "I'm  willing  to  bet  you  already  have 
your  air  police  out  in  full  force,  scouring  the  air 
towards  the  Atlantic." 

Sir  Thomas  nodded  slowly  and  looked  at  me 
keenly. 

"You're  the  man  who  first  propounded  the  theory 
that  the  American  raids  were  carried  out  by  aircraft?" 
he  asked. 

"Can't  claim  that  amount  of  credit,  sir.  It  was  just 
the  obvious  sort  of  idea  that  must  have  come  to  a  lot 
of  people  together.  I  said  an  airship,  because  of  cer- 
tain difficulties  of  manoeuvring,  taking  up  the  weight 
of  the  stolen  stuff,  the  regular  practice  of  stealing 
gasoline." 

"Let  me  say  at  once  that  I  agree  with  you,  and  that 
I  have  taken  a  very  serious  view  of  the  matter  as  it 
might  concern  us  here.  I  wanted  our  people  to  adopt 
the  recent  American  plan  of  supplying  gas-masks  to 
all  guards  on  banks,  and  to  put  up  gas-proof  glass  ob- 
servation cages  at  favorable  points.  That  was  your 
idea,  too?"  he  broke  off. 

"No.  The  suggestion  for  that  came  from  a  friend 
of  mine,  Dan  Lamont,  sir." 

"Ah,  yes.  Mr.  Dan  Lamont,"  said  Sir  Thomas. 
"Well,  I  wanted  our  people  to  adopt  these  measures, 
but  they  are  slow  to  move — damnably  slow!  They 
were  convinced  that  the  raids  were  an  American  con- 
cern. The  measures  are  being  adopted,  after  prolonged 
discussion,  but  they  come  too  late,  as  usual,  to  be  of 
any  service."  He  laughed  grimly.  "We  shall  prob- 
ably have  the  masks  and  the  cages  ready  by  the  time 
the  raiders  have  been  run  to  earth." 

"If  you  think  that,  you  will  have  your  scouts  out?" 

"They  have  been  in  the  air  this  last  hour  or  so,  Mr. 
Boon,"  replied  said  Thomas,  with  a  smile.  "I  under- 
stand from  Sir  Almeric  that  you  have  been  on  the 
scene  soon  after  each  raid?" 

"With  the  exception  of  the  Westbury,  yes." 

"There  are  some  points  on  which  I  should  like  the 
benefit  of  your  experience,  Mr.  Boon  " 

"Anything  I  can  do,  sir  " 


He  questioned  me  shrewdly,  until  I  had  covered  the 
ground  of  the  whole  raids,  down  to  the  minutest  detail. 
Then  when  he  had  satisfied  himself  that  he  had  ex- 
hausted all  my  information,  he  got  Lord  Almeric  to 
have  an  ocean  track  chart  found  for  us,  and  we  pored 
over  it  together. 

It  took  the  Transatlantic  Company's  airships  a  net 
sixty  hours  from  New  York  to  London,  but  a  less 
heavily-built  machine  might  do  it  in  fifty-odd.  Adding 
on  the  difference  in  time  between  the  two  cities  brought 
the  time  occupied  to  about  sixty,  gross.  That  is  to 
say :  if  an  airship  with  a  cruising  speed  of  about  one- 
thirty  kilometres  per  hour  had  wanted  to  be  over  Lon- 
don just  after  midnight  on  Friday,  she  would  have  had 
to  leave  her  base  on  the  American  continent  not  later 
than  midday  on  the  Wednesday.  But  the  chances  were 
that,  to  escape  observation,  the  departure  in  actual  case 
had  been  made  in  the  dark  of  the  early  Wednesday 
morning. 

Calculations 

'  I  ^HE  Louisville  raid  happened  on  Sunday  night  and 
A  Monday  morning,  and  it  was  likely  that  the  air- 
ship had  made  her  base  either  in  the  dark  of  the  Mon- 
day morning  or  on  Monday  night.  Leaving  Louisville 
about  four  after  the  raid,  it  would  be  six  before  she 
reached  any  likely  base  in  the  Alleghanies,  and  by  that 
time  the  farm  folks  would  be  about  on  their  morning 
chores.  The  vessel  could  hardly  escape  being  seen  in 
the  light  at  six  o'clock.  This  brought  us  back  to  the 
notion  of  a  base  at  least  twelve  hours'  flight  from 
Louisville,  and  gave  additional  color  to  the  theory  of 
a  base  over  the  Canadian  border,  probably  in  some 
undeveloped  district  back  of  Ontario. 

To  berth  an  airship  on  the  Monday  evening,  and 
to  have  her  fitted  out  again  for  a  raid  across  the 
Atlantic  within  thirty-odd  hours,  was  something  of  a 
feat.  There  was  the  unloading  of  the  Louisville  haul, 
the  refilling  of  the  ballonets  with  gas,  the  retuning  of 
the  engines,  and  the  general  tightening  up  and  over- 
hauling necessary  for  such  an  important  voyage.  If 
the  raiders  were  using  only  one  dirigible,  she  was  a 
wonder  of  efficiency. 

It  was  quite  within  possibility  that  they  had  two 
machines  for  their  operations,  and  the  three  of  us 
discussing  the  situation  in  Lord  Almeric's  room  were 
not  inclined  to  dismiss  the  idea  idly,  when  we  con- 
sidered the  daring  which  could  conceive  and  carry  out 
raids  on  such  a  wide  radius,  and  the  magnitude  of  the 
organization  behind  the  conception.  Indeed,  it  seemed 
not  too  far-fetched  an  idea  that  the  organization  oper- 
ated from  bases  in  both  the  Old  World  and  the  New, 
and  that  in  imagining  one  solitary  lair  in  Ontario  we 
were  seriously  underestimating  the  power  of  this  mys- 
terious force. 

There  seemed  to  be  neither  rhyme  nor  reason  in  the 
operations.  Of  several  millions  of  pounds  sterling  in 
gold  lying  in  the  Bank  of  England,  the  raiders  had 
abstracted  merely  one,  so  Lord  Almeric  told  us,  and 
all  the  trouble  that  had  been  involved  in  forcing  the 
three  joint  stock  banks  had  not  yet  been  rewarded  by 
the  finding  of  any  gold;  but  in  each  of  these  banks 
there  had  been  the  same  insensate  destruction  by  acid 
of  thousands  of  pounds'  worth  of  bearer  securities.  It 
looked  like  the  work  of  madmen,  impish  destructive- 
ness  and  senseless  expenditure  of  energy.  Why  trouble 
to  force  four  banks  when  there  was  sufficient  loot  in 
the  most  important? 

"It  might  have  been,"  I  suggested,  "that  they  broke 


146 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


open  the  Broad  Street  Banks  first,  were  disappointed 
of  a  haul  from  them,  and  destroyed  the  securities  out 
of  spleen  then  came  onto  the  Bank  of  England  only 
to  find  that  there  was  more  gold  here  than  they  could 
get  away  with." 

"I'm  afraid,  Jimmy,"  said  Lord  Almeric,  "that  that 
explanation  will  not  serve.  It  is  a  matter  of  almost 
daily  news  how  much  gold  is  deposited  in  the  Bank 
here.  It  is  also  common  knowledge  that  the  joint- 
stock  banks  since  the  war  have  kept  no  reserve  of  gold, 
but  have  had  a  working  arrangement  with  us." 

"These  are  not  criminals  in  the  ordinary  sense,"  said 
Sir  Thomas.  "The  distribution  of  the  radium  points 
to  that,  the  care  that  has  been  exercised  to  preserve 
life  in  the  raids.  There  is  some  idea,  as  you  have  said, 
Mr.  Boon,  underlying  it  all,  and  the  future  will  prob- 
ably show  what  the  idea  is.  We  may  regard  this  raid 
as  a  demonstration  of  power,  an  attempt  to  bring  chaos 
into  the  business  world,  to  upset  values — some  cranky 
method  of  advertising  an  idea  presently  to  be  revealed. 
If  I  may  be  allowed  to  express  what  is  merely  an  in- 
tuition on  my  part,  I  do  not  believe  that  these  raiders 
value  even  the  gold  they  have  taken.  They  have  mar- 
velous power — marvelous!  But  the  vulnerable  point 
in  any  scheme  of  attack  is  its  weakest  link.  That  is  in 
the  air  in  this  case.  I  cannot  believe  that  the  scheme 
of  the  raiders  can  be  carried  out  with  a  dirigible.  We 
have  proved  the  vulnerability  of  the  airship  time  and 
again,  and  it  is  on  this  point  that  we  will  get  them.  I 
shall  not  concern  myself  solely  with  looking  for  these 
criminals  or  cranks  on  solid  earth.  I  will  keep  after 
them  in  the  air,  and,  by  God— get  them,  too !— if  they 
are  on  my  side  of  the  globe !" 

And  Fears 

""DULLY  for  you,  General!"  I  couldn't  help  yell- 
Sj  ing,  he  spoke  with  such  force.    "I  beg  your 
pardon." 

"Not  at  all,"  said  he.  "The  best  thing  you  can  do 
is  to  get  back  to  America  at  your  quickest  speed,  and 
pitch  into  the  authorities  there.  If  the  raiders  are 
operating  from  Canada,  until  measures  are  taken  to 
stop  them  the  whole  of  your  wealthy  cities  round  the 
Great  Lakes  are  at  their  mercy — Chicago,  Buffalo,  De- 
troit— and  the  coastal  cities,  also — Boston,  Philadel- 
phia, Washington.  Make  them  see  what  you  and  I  see, 
that  if  this  menace  is  to  be  scotched,  they  will  need 
aeroplanes,  fighting  aeroplanes  that  can  climb  to  five 
thousand  metres  and  more.  Make  them  understand 
that  this  is  not  any  parochial  question,  or  national,  but 
that  it  is  for  the  world  to  face  and  beat.  For  me,  I 
shall  strongly  represent  to  our  government  that  the 
Canadian  authorities  be  asked  to  go  over  their  ter- 
ritory with  the  minutest  search  they  can.  And  I  will 
put  the  French  police  on  their  guard — and  the  Ger- 
mans— the  Germans  " 

He  broke  off  and  eyed  Lord  Almeric  queerly. 

"No,  my  dear  Basildon,"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "I 
can  believe  much  of  them,  but  that  they  would  leave 
so  many  millions  of  the  gold  they  so  badly  want  be- 
hind them — no." 

"A  blind?" 

"Not  they.  They  are  incapable  of  the  sacrifice." 

"Humph!  Perhaps  you're  right — perhaps  you're 
right.  Though,  by  George !  they've  got  the  ships — and 
you  never  know  but  what  they  have  the  gas!  I'm 
certain  that  they  have  never  stopped  their  research." 

"Think  again,  Basildon — think  again.  Would  the 
matter  of  a  few  Americans  or  Englishmen  asphyxiated 


deter  brother  German  from  using  poison  gas  if  he 
had  conceived  the  idea  of  these  raids?" 

"They  want  something  better  than  their  Zeppelins 
to  get  across  the  Atlantic  with,  Sir  Thomas,"  said  I, 
"and  besides,  how  about  housing  them  once  they  were 
in  America  ?" 

"Well,  I  relinquish  the  idea,"  Sir  Thomas  said.  "I 
shall  put  the  French — and  the  Germans— on  the  qui 
vive.  If  London  this  week,  why  not  Paris  or  Berlin 
the  next?" 

"Why  not?"  Lord  Almeric  agreed. 

"Br-r-r !  And  this  damned  government  to  move  into 
action!  Pah!  Think  of  it,  Pluscardenl  The  solemn 
idiots  sitting  all  night  through  to  this  very  morning  de- 
bating a  reduction  of  the  Air  Estimates — while  this  is 
happening,  practically  at  the  other  end  of  the  street! 
I  wish  to  Heaven  the  raiders  had  given  them  a  whiff 
of  the  gas — the  prosy,  pusillanimous,  pompous,  pin- 
headed  " 

It  is  hard  to  say  how  far  Sir  Thomas  would  have 
got  with  his  alliteration,  if  the  telephone  bell  had  not 
rung  just  then.  Smiling  at  his  friend,  in  spite  of 
the  gravity  of  the  situation,  Lord  Almeric  picked  up 
the  receiver. 

"Yes,"  he  said  into  the  microphone,  "Sir  Thomas  is 
here.    Scotland  Yard  for  you  Basildon." 

"Ah,  good  1"  said  Sir  Thomas.  "We  may  have  some 
news!" 

Basildon  Gets  His  Wish 

SIR  THOMAS  BASILDON  took  the  receiver  from 
Lord  Almeric,  and  sat  on  the  desk  to  talk  into  the 
instrument. 

"Yes,  Ferguson — Basildon  speaking,"  he  said.  "Eh  ? 
Ah!  Yes,  well,  I  half  expected  that.  Array  and  Navy 
Stores?  Aha— that,  too.  Eh?  Just  a  minute,  Fer- 
guson." He  turned  to  us. 

"The  thing's  complete.  A  petrol  station  at  Purfleet 
— the  Anglo-American  Oil  Company — reports  a  de- 
ficiency of  six  thousand  litres  of  petrol,  and  the  whole 
establishment  put  to  sleep.  The  Army  and  Navy  Stores 
in  Victoria  Street  have  been  forced  open,  and  a  large 
quantity  of  foodstuffs  taken  away,  money  being  left. 
Now,  Ferguson  " 

He  turned  to  the  mouthpiece  again,  and  almost  im- 
mediately an  incredulous  look  passed  over  his  face. 

"No!"  he  shouted.  "Don't  pull  your  chief's  leg, 
Ferguson — it  isn't  done!  Tell  me  again.  With  their 
faces  blackened?    Well,  I'm  damned!" 

He  burst  into  a  roar  of  laughter,  shaking,  shaking, 
until  Lord  Almeric  and  I  sprang  up  in  alarm.  Soldiers 
have  given  way  to  hysterics  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
nervous  strain  before,  and  I  thought  the  general  had 
an  attack.  I  don't  know  what  Lord  Almeric  thought, 
but  he  evidently  considered  the  laughter  a  little  ill- 
timed. 

"No,  no!  I'm  all  right,  really— I'm  not  unstrung!" 
gasped  Sir  Thomas.  "The  raiders  did  gas  the  Com- 
mons this  morning — and  every  man  jack  on  the  Treas- 
ury Bench  woke  up  with  his  face  blackened !  Blackened, 
by  George!— with  burnt  cork!" 

"What?"  cried  Lord  Almeric.  "You  aren't  serious, 
Basildon !" 

"Serious  as  cholera,"  said  Sir  Thomas.  "Ferguson 
has  just  told  me— and  he's  too  solemn  to  joke  on  any 
subject." 

There  was  no  help  for  it.  Lord  Almeric  tried  hard 
to  keep  his  face  straight,  but  he  couldn't — and  presently 
he  and  the  general  were  lying  back  helpless  in  chairs, 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


147 


laughing  till  tears  streamed  down  their  faces.  I  thought 
it  funny  enough,  but  their  laughter  got  me  more  than 
the  joke. 

"Confound  it,  Basildon,"  said  Lord  Almeric,  mop- 
ping his  eyes.  "The  thing's  farcical.  It  couldn't  have 
been  the  raiders — surely  not !" 

"Must  have  been,  Pluscarden.  Boxes  of  radium  were 
left  beside  the  mace,  addressed  to  some  ot  our  research 
institutions.  The  thing's  conclusive!" 

"It  might  have  been  one  of  the  Opposition  who  woke 
up  first  and  snatched  the  opportunity  to  make  the  front 
bench  look  ridiculous.  It  is  enough  to  wreck  the  Gov- 
ernment." 

"Might  have  been  that,"  Sir  Thomas  chuckled,  "and 
I  hope  it  does  wreck  the  Government.  We  may  get 
the  Die-Hards  back  again,  thank  God." 

"Let  us  hope  so,  Basildon.  Well,  there  is  little  use 
in  remaining  here.  We  can  do  nothing  until  the  clerks 
turn  up,  when  we  can  go  through  the  books.  Heavens, 
what  a  mess!"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "I  think  a  ride 
home  and  a  bath,  then  early  breakfast,  is  the  idea. 
Let  us  go,  Jimmy." 

"Just  let  Mr.  Boon  show  me  those  splashes  of  pow- 
dered glass,  Pluscarden,"  Sir  Thomas  said,  "and  I'm 
with  you.  Could  you  drop  me  at  Scotland  Yard,  if  I 
send  my  car  on?  I  want  to  talk  to  you  on  the  way." 

"Surely,"  said  his  lordship.  "I'll  pick  you  up  out- 
side." 

There  was  no  great  crowd  in  the  streets  yet,  for  it 
was  barely  six  o'clock,  but  Sir  Thomas  no  sooner  ap- 
peared than  he  was  surrounded  by  newspaper  men, 
who  wanted  a  statement. 

"I  can't  give  you  any  statement  yet,"  Sir  Thomas 
protested.  "Yes— yes,  you  can  say  I  believe  it  to  be 
the  work  of  the  Paniassic  gang.  That  must  be  obvious. 
I  shall  issue  a  general  statement  when  I  get  back  to 
Scotland  Yard.    I  must  treat  you  all  alike." 

They  fell  away  from  him,  but  watched  him  from  a 
distance,  and  when  we  had  finished  looking  at  the 
smears  of  glass  and  had  gone  on,  I  saw  them  gather 
round  the  spot  and  examine  the  powder  closely. 

"Glass  bombs,  I  agree — probably  containing  the  gas 
in  liquid  form,"  said  Sir  Thomas.  "I  wonder  what 
it  is?" 

The  newspaper  men  were  still  hanging  round  the 
smears  when  the  three  of  us  drove  away  in  Lord 
Almeric's  automobile. 

"I  must  have  those  policemen  sent  away,"  said  Sir 
Thomas,  when  we  had  passed  through  the  cordon  which 
was  holding  a  small  crowd  lack  from  the  area  which 
had  been  gassed.  "It  is  nothing  but  a  waste  of  time." 

He  and  Lord  Almeric  talked  earnestly  enough  as  we 
made  our  way  to  the  West  End,  but  though  they  did 
not  exclude  me  from  the  conversation,  it  was  of  stuff 
that  was  Greek  to  me,  and  I  was  more  interested  in 
the  wakening  streets.  I  should  like  to  have  seen  how 
Fleet  Street  was  taking  the  event,  but  we  went  down 
a  street  which  brought  us  out  on  the  Embankment  by 
Blackfriar's  Bridge,  passing  the  building  that  during 
the  war  was  known  as  Adastral  House,  where  I  had 
tried  to  get  into  the  British  Flying  Corps  by  swearing 
I  was  a  British  citizen.  They  wouldn't  have  me  be- 
cause of  my  age.  I  was  only  a  kid  then.  The  build- 
ing now  seemed  to  be  the  offices  of  some  commercial 
firm.  I  remembered  my  chagrin  at  being  turned  down 
by  the  British  authorities,  though  they  were  extraor- 
dinarily kind  to  me.  and  looking  back  at  that  time,  I  got 
a-tingle  all  over  to  think  that  I  was  taking  a  lively 
part  in  an  affair  pretty  night  as  exciting  as  the  war  I 


had  wanted  so  much  to  get  into. 

It  made  me  smile  to  think  of  the  intense  awe  I 
should  have  had  for  the  general  in  those  days,  or  even 
for  Lord  Almeric,  kind  as  he  was.  A  mighty  queer 
set  of  happenings,  thought  I,  that  brought  me  to  be 
sitting  in  a  limousine  with  the  chief  of  the  British 
C.  I.  D.  and  the  deputy  governor  of  the  Bank  of 
England ! 

We  dropped  Sir  Thomas  .Basildon  at  New  Scotland 
Yard,  passing  through  the  courtyard  into  Whitehall. 

"You  must  permit  me  to  worry  you  a  trifle  more, 
Mr.  Boon,"  said  Sir  Thomas,  as  he  stepped  from  the 
automobile.  "I  want  you  to  recount  your  experiences 
to  some  of  my  men.  May  I  ring  you  up  at  Lord 
Almeric's?— or,  no — let  us  fix  the  time  at  twelve-thirty 
to-day.  And  perhaps  I  may  be  able  to  snatch  a  minute 
or  two  to  see  your  new  plane — what  d'ye  call  it? — the 
Merlin?— -if  I  may  be  allowed." 

"Delighted,  sir,"  said  I.  "Twelve-thirty,  then. 
Here?" 

"Here,"  he  replied.  "Ask  for  me  at  this  door.  They'll 
bring  you  straight  up." 

As  we  turned  into  Whitehall,  I  caught  a  glimpse  of 
crowds  in  Parliament  Square. 

"Surely  the  Senate— the  Parliament  isn't  still  sit- 
ting?" I  asked  Lord  Almeric. 

"No,"  he  smiled.  "I  expect  they've  gone  home  by 
now.  But  you  know  what  crowds  are.  They  will  hang 
around  Parliament  Square  for  hours  in  the  vain  hope 
that  they  will  see  somebody  who  has*  had  his  face 
blackened,  and  they  will  give  a  circumstantial  account 
of  how  nearly  they  accomplished  it,  years  after." 

One-third  the  Sun's  Speed 

WE  reached  Lord  Almeric's  house  in  Knights- 
bridge  about  half-past  six.  Milliken  was  no- 
where to  be  seen.  I  looked  about  for  a  servant,  and 
found  the  one  who  had  opened  the  door,  yawning  on 
the  landing. 

"Do  you  know  where  Mr.  Milliken  has  gone?"  I 
asked. 

"No,  sir.  He  must  have  slipped  out  early,  before 
the  'ouse  was  properly  astir,  sir— if  he  has  gone,"  said 
the  man  with  an  air  of  suspicion. 

"Very  well,"  said  I. 

I  guessed  that  my  mechanic  had  gone  down  to  begin 
work  on  the  Merlin,  so  I  had  a  bath,  and  presently 
joined  Lord  Almeric  at  breakfast. 

"What  plans  have  you  for  to-day,  Jimmy?"  asked 
his  lordship. 

"First,  I  shall  cable  my  father,  and  get  him  to  begin 
the  campaigns  against  the  raiders  so  that  a  cordon  of 
scouts  can  be  drawn  round  the  coast  to-night.  Then 
I  will  have  to  attend  to  the  Merlin.  I  propose  starting 
for  America  at  ten  to-morrow,  so  as  to  arrive  before 
dark." 

"Bless  me !  How  on  earth  can  you  do  that  ?" 

"I  leave  at  ten  from  here,  and  taken  thirteen  hours 
to  make  Long  Island,  nominally  eleven  o'clock  at  night 
— but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  will  be  six  o'clock,  Amer- 
ican time,  when  I  arrive.  I  get  back  the  five  hours 
we  lost  coming  here." 

"I  had  forgotten  that,"  said  Lord  Almeric  with  a 
smile.  "One  of  these  days  you  young  men  will  be 
beating  time  itself." 

"Ah,"  said  I.  "We've  got  to  fly  at  about  thirteen 
hundred  kilometres  per  hour  to  beat  time  across  the 
Atlantic  from  east  to  west." 

"Good  God!"  he  cried.    "You  don't  mean  to  say 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


you've  reckoned  it  out?" 

"Why  not?"  I  grinned  at  him.  "When  I  started 
Hying,  ninety  miles  an  hour  was  thought  good  going — 
that's  a  hundred  and  forty-four  kilometres.  My  Mer- 
lin does  three  and  a  half  times  that  speed,  five  hundred 
odd — which  is  more  than  a  third  of  sun  speed." 

"Jimmy,"  said  his  lordship,  "I  give  you  up.  You 
are  too  much  for  me.  Tell  Sir  Thomas  Basildon  that 
when  you  see  him  to-day,  will  you  ?" 

"AH  right,  sir." 

He  made  for  the  door,  where  he  turned. 

"Good  morning,  Jimmy,"  said  he.  Then,  "Do  you 
think  it  will  ever  be  done?" 

"Why  not?  Shells  do  it.  We  might  find  a  new 
principle  of  flight." 

He  went  out,  shaking  his  head. 

I  finished  breakfast  and  went  down  to  Battersea, 
where  I  found  Milliken  with  half  a  dozen  mechanics 
busy  over  the  Merlin. 

"Hullo,  Milliken!"  I  said.  "Where  did  you  get  to 
this  morning?" 

"Here,"  said  he.  "Knew  that  the  sooner  I  got  on 
the  job,  the  better,  seeing  that  we'll  be  going  back 
to-morrow.  She's  in  fine  trim,  though — and  as  sound 
as  a  bell." 

"Good.  Did  you  have  any  breakfast  ?" 

"There's  a  quick-breakfast  counter  and  hot-dog  cabin 
in  the  street  on  the  other  side  of  the  bridge,"  said 
Milliken,  "but  they  don't  sell  any  fruit." 

"  'E  means  a  cawrfee  stall,  sir,"  one  of  the  mechanics 
explained. 

"I  get  that." 

"We're  goin'  to  take  'im  round  the  corner  presently 
w'en  we  knocks  off,  to  a  chop-'ouse.  'E'll  get  a  real 
breakfis'  there.  But  'e  won't  get  no  dog  or  fruit — 
'cept  the  sossidges  might  be  dog — and  a  banana." 

When  the  mechanics  had  gone,  taking  Milliken  with 
them  to  the  "chop-'ouse,"  I  got  off  my  coat  and  jacket 
and  went  over  the  bus.  As  Milliken  had  said,  she  was 
as  sound  as  a  bell.  I  worked  with  the  men  until  mid- 
day, when  I  walked  to  Scotland  Yard. 

I  told  all  I  knew  to  half  a  dozen  detectives,  and 
stood  the  fire  of  questions  they  shot  at  me.  until  at  last 
they  all  got  up  and  trooped  out,  solemnly  shaking  hands 
with  me,  each  one  of  them.  Then  Sir  Thomas  came 
along  and  inspected  the  Merlin.  He  expressed  a  high 
opinion  of  it  and  offered  to  use  his  influence  if  I 
wanted  to  dispose  of  it  to  the  British  Air  Board.  I 
told  him  that  would  depend  on  what  the  American 
authorities  thought  of  it,  and  if  they'd  approve  of 
Britain  having  it,  my  own  country  naturally  coming 
first  with  me.  He  patted  me  on  the  shoulder  at  that, 
and  said  I  was  quite  right.  Then  we  had  lunch  to- 
gether at  his  club,  and  after  that  I  collected  Milliken 
and  pulled  him  around  the  town. 

Crowds  were  collected,  here  and  there  about  the 
streets,  and  you'd  come  on  small  knots  of  people, 
laughing  like  mad  over  the  papers.  It  did  seem  as  if 
nobody  cared  a  red  cent  about  the  raid  on  the  banks, 
but  that  everybody  thought  a  great  deal  of  the  joke 
played  on  the  British  ministers.  I  knew  that  many  a 
minister  and  public  servant  had  been  sent  into  retire- 
ment through  ridicule  in  France,  and  that  the  trait 
was  peculiar  to  the  French,  but  if  the  Cabinet  of  the 
British  government  could  stand  the  guffaws  that  went 
up  that  afternoon,  they  were  gummed  to  their  seats 
with  Hercules  cement.  I  collected  a  few  of  the  journals 
for  future  reference,  and  took  Milliken  to  a  picture 
theatre. 


It  was  late  again  when  we  got  back  to  Lord  Al- 
meric's,  and  we  found  his  lordship  waiting  for  us,  with 
the  whiskey  decanter  all  ready.  When  at  last  we  did 
go  up  to  bed,  he  came  into  our  rooms  and  pushed  a 
tissue-wrapped  package  into  my  hand,  and  another  into 
Milliken's.  Then  he  went  away  before  either  of  us 
could  say  anything. 

I  must  say  that  Lord  Almeric  had  speed  in  doing 
kindnesses.  Milliken's  package  contained  a  tobacco  box 
of  silver,  inside  the  lid  of  which  was  engraved : 

To  W.  M. 

In  remembrance  of  an  enjoyable  Atlantic  flight  with 
"As  proper  a  man  as  ever  trod  neat's  leather," 
from  A.  P. 

Mine  was  a  gold  cigarette-case,  and  in  it  was  in- 
scribed: 

To  J.  V.  B. 
In  remembrance  of  an  Atlantic  flight  at 
One-third  of  the  Sim's  speed, 
from  A.  P. 

CHAPTER  IX 
Berlin  and  Paris 

ON  the  Sunday  morning,  Milliken  went  off  early 
to  the  Merlin,  taking  his  own  luggage  and 
mine.  Lord  Almeric  and  myself  were  having 
breakfast  together,  and  had  barely  started  when  a 
servant  came  in  with  word  that  Sir  Thomas  Basildon 
wished  to  speak  to  his  lordship  on  the  phone.  Lord 
Almeric  came  back  with  ever  sd  slight  a  ruffle  of 
excitement  on  his  habitual  calm. 

"Basildon  was  right,"  he  said.  "He  has  just  told 
me  that  the  raiders  visited  both  Berlin  and  Paris  this 
morning." 

"In  one  night!"  I  exclaimed.  "Then  it  looks  as  if 
they  have  more  than  one  airship  in  Europe,  Lord  Al- 
meric. From  Berlin  to  Paris  is  well  over  seven  hun- 
dred kilometres,  and  the  voyage  would  take  the  aver- 
age airship  more  than  four  hours.  Did  he  say  at  what 
time  the  raids  took  placer" 

"No.  He  is  on  his  way  here  now  to  say  good-bye 
to  you,  Jimmy,  and  he  will  have  breakfast  with  us. 
We  shall  have  full  details  then."  He  turned  to  the 
butler.  "Sir  Thomas  Basildon  will  have  breakfast, 
Bunter." 

"Very  good,  my  lord." 

"We  are  beginning  to  find  the  amazing  measure  of 
our  mysterious  enemy,"  Lord  Almeric  went  on.  "It 
must  be  a  huge  organization.  Think  of  the  quantities 
of  ore  which  must  have  been  reduced  to  result  in  all 
that  radium — and  the  expense  of  the  operation!  Why, 
the  amount  left  in  New  York,  Louisville,  and  London 
here,  represents  as  much  money  as  has  been  taken  in 
the  various  raids.  That  alone  is  a  staggering  fact. 
The  preparations  for  these  raids  must  have  occupied  a 
number  of  years." 

"I'm  with  you  there,  Lord  Almeric,"  said  I,  "and 
the  secret  has  been  astonishingly  well  kept.  It  beats 
me  to  know  how  the  airships  could  have  been  built  and 
their  docking  sheds  erected  without  the  connivance,  or 
at  least  the  hoodwinking,  of  the  government  in  which- 
ever country  the  bases  of  the  raiders  are  situated.  I 
said  bases — because  the  thing  gets  bigger  every  bit  of 
news.  How  can  we  be  certain  that  there  aren't  a  num- 
ber of  bases  both  in  Europe  and  in  America  ?  I'm  begin- 
ning to  get  fogged,  Lord  Almeric.  When  the  thing 
first  started,  I  thought  we  were  up  against  an  ordinary 
gang  of  crooks  using  new  methods,  and  that  one  en- 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


149 


counter  with  them  in  the  Merlin,  once  she  was  carrying 
her  armament,  would  settle  the  business,  I'm  not  so 
sure  now.  I  don't  know  where  I'm  going  to  begin." 

"The  problem  is  not  at  all  a  simple  one,"  Lord 
Almeric  agreed.  "But  you  are  taking  the  only  way  in 
which  you  personally  can  deal  with  the  situation, 
Jimmy.  If  you  can  persuade  your  government  to  be 
fully  prepared  for  further  raids,  you  will  do  a  great 
service.  And  you  never  know  but  that  you  will  have 
the  luck  to  encounter  one  or  other  of  the  airships  in 
your  seaplane.  It  will  be  an  interesting  fight  if  it 
ever  occurs." 

"There's  the  devil  of  it,"  I  said.  "My  bus  would 
have  a  better  chance  of  whacking  them  than  any  other 
in  existence — I  may  sound  a  bit  chesty  when  I  say 
that,  but  you  know  how  good  she  is  " 

"I  think  I  do,"  he  smiled,  "and  I  don't  think  you  the 
least  'chesty.' " 

"Well,  then.  I  sell  my  design  to  the  government, 
and  so  give  a  number  of  good  fellows  a  chance  to  pull 
off  the  fight  I  want  to  have  myself.  I'd  like  to  be 
selfish  and  hog  the  whole  thing  for  James  V.  Boon." 

"Nonsense,  Jimmy,"  said  his  lordship  with  a  twinkle. 
"You'll  play  the  game  and  give  your  side  full  benefit 
of  your  knowledge.  You  realize  as  well  as  anyone 
that  only  good  team-work  will  scotch  this  menace. ' 

"No.  Hogging  won't  do,"  I  agreed.  "I'll  have  to 
put  the  Merlin  into  the  pool." 

In  an  incredibly  short  time  we  were  joined  by  the 
chief  of  the  C.  I.  D.,  who  must  have  done  violence  to 
all  the  speed  laws  of  the  city. 

"What  do  you  think  of  it,  Pluscarden?"  he  de- 
manded. "Didn't  I  say  Paris  and  Berlin,  eh?" 

"Yes,  you  were  right,  Basildon." 

"An  astonishing  thing  about  it  to  me  is  both  cities 
being  attacked  on  the  same  morning,"  said  Sir  Thomas, 
already  busy  at  the  breakfast-table.  "The  raid  on 
Berlin  seems  to  have  started  at  half-past  twelve  this 
morning.  The  district  round  the  Reichsbank  was  sub- 
jected to  gas  at  that  time,  while  the  Berliners  were  still 
on  their  pleasures.  It  was  seen  that  something  queer 
was  happening.  Folk  venturing  over  a  certain  fairly 
definite  line  simply  fell  staggering  to  the  ground,  while 
others  outside  the  line  could  watch  it  happen.  The 
police  tried  to  get  into  the  district,  but  met  with  the 
same  fate. 

"It  did  not  dawn  on  anyone,"  he  went  on,  "anyone 
in  authority,  for  some  time,  that  the  city  was  going 
through  a  similar  experience  as  that  of  New  York  and 
London — even  though  I  had  warned  the  police  yester- 
day morning— but  at  last  gas-masks  were  sent  for. 
They  were  no  good  against  the  anesthetic.  The  police 
wearing  them  fell  just  the  same.  Would  you  oblige 
me  with  the  mustard,  Mr.  Boon?" 

"Did  they  try  to  get  above  the  district  in  the  air?" 
I  asked,  passing  him  the  pot. 

A  Realization  of  War 

••npHANKS,"  he  said.  "I'm  coming  to  that.  While 
A  they  were  still  fiddling  about  with  the  masks  and 
making  bull-foolish  rushes  into  the  gassed  area,  nobody 
had  thought  of  calling  out  the  air  scouts.  They  found 
the  air  clear  on  the  tops  of  the  buildings,  and  tried  to 
approach  that  way,  but  of  course  came  to  openings 
that  were  impassable.  It  was  over  an  hour  before  the 
first  air  scout  came  wheeling  over  the  district — the 
damned  fools — and  by  that  time  there  was  nothing  to 
be  seen  above  or  below.  About  two  o'clock  it  was 
possible  to  get  into  the  area,  though  here  and  there  the 


police  were  overcome  by  the  gas  even  then.  Pockets, 
I  suppose,  where  the  fumes — or  whatever  it  is — had  not 
dispersed.  Only  the  Reichsbank  had  been  forced. 
There  was  no  gold  to  take,  but  not  only  had  securities 
been  destroyed,  but  the  bulk  of  the  ledgers  had  been 
absolutely  obliterated  by  the  use  of  acid.  This  is 
amazingly  good  ham,  Pluscarden — your  own  breeding?" 

"Good  God!"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "Yes— the  ham 
is  from  the  farm." 

"I've  seldom  tasted  better,"  said  Sir  Thomas  calmly. 
"Yes,"  he  went  on.  "A  pretty  rotten  trick !  The  usual 
boxes  of  radium  had  been  left,  this  time  in  the  bank 
itself.  By  one-thirty  every  available  aeroplane  was  in 
the  air,  but  though  they  may  still  be  searching,  up  to 
now  there  has  been  neither  sight  nor  sound  of  the 
raiders  reported.  That's  Berlin.  Now,  here's  a  fact 
that  will  make  you  pause  and  consider,  Mr.  Boon. 
Within  three  hours,  Paris  was  visited." 

"One  moment,  Sir  Thomas,"  I  interrupted.  "Three 
hours'  actual  flight — or  clock  time?" 

"I  mean  three  hours'  actual  flight,"  he  replied.  "I'm 
remembering  the  hour  difference  between  Berlin  and 
Paris  clocks.  Shortly  after  three,  Paris  time,  the 
raiders  had  descended  on  that  city.  Here  some  con- 
siderable time  passed  before  it  was  discovered  that  any- 
thing uncommon  was  in  progress.  The  raid  was  con- 
centrated on  the  Banque  de  France,  and,  if  you  remem- 
ber your  Paris,  there's  not  much  doing  just  there,  even 
though  the  Avenue  de  l'Opera  close  by  may  be  swarm- 
ing with  night-birds.  As  soon  as  the  alarm  was  given 
— pretty  much  from  the  same  circumstances  as  had 
become  apparent  in  Berlin — soldiers  and  gendarmerie 
were  pushed  along  to  surround  the  Banque,  but  they 
could  not  venture  closer  than  the  north  side  of  the 
Place  des  Victoires  on  the  north  and  on  a  line  from 
the  Palais  Royal  on  the  south.  The  police  brought 
gas-masks,  with  the  same  result  as  in  Berlin.  They 
even  brought  up  a  wagonful  of  oxygen  tubes,  which 
they  drove  slowly  up  Rue  des  Bons  Enfants,  releasing 
the  gas  as  they  went.  But  the  driver  of  the  camion 
was  overcome  and  switched  off  his  engines  before  they 
were  half-way  up  the  street,  and  the  crew  was  so 
affected  that  nothing  could  be  seen  of  what  was  hap- 
pening round  the  Banque.  Meantime,  there  had  been 
no  delay  in  bringing  up  the  air  police,  except  for  the 
time  that  had  elapsed  before  the  alarm  was  given.  The 
airship  was  seen  " 

"Ah !"  cried  Lord  Almeric,  and  I  felt  a  thrill  run  up 
my  spine. 

"It  was  seen,"  said  Sir  Thomas  again.  "It  was 
snuggled  down  on  top  of  Rue  Bailiff,  hugging  close 
to  the  buildings.  The  unfortunate  thing  is  that  both 
the  scouts  who  saw  it  developed  engine  trouble  and 
had  to  come  down.  One  almost  crashed  in  the  Palais 
Royal  Gardens — he  hit  a  plane  tree — but  the  other 
made  a  good  landing  in  the  Place  du  Carrousel.  By 
the  time  the  others  came  up,  the  airship  was  gone,  and 
although  the  French  and  we  have  been  scouring  the 
air — searchlights  and  everything — not  a  single  trace  of 
the  airship  has  been  discovered." 

"What  an  unlucky  thing  that  the  engines  of  both 
machines  conked,"  I  said. 

"If  both  pilots  hadn't  been  men  of  proved  daring 
and  pluck,"  said  Sir  Thomas,  "the  inclination  would  be 
to  say  they  funked,  for  when  the  engines  were  ex- 
amined, not  a  thing  wrong  could  be  found.  It's  a 
mysterious  affair.  I  can't  make  it  out." 

"Could  the  airship  have  done  anything  to  them?"  I 
asked. 


150 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


"I  don't  see  how  she  could,"  he  replied.  "They  were 
flying  high  enough  to  clear  the  buildings  in  landing— 
and  surely  out  of  range  of  anything  the  raiders  could 
do.  What  makes  me  mad  is  the  selfishness,  the  pig- 
headedness  of  the  German  police.  My  people  didn't 
get  the  news  from  Berlin  until  after  the  Paris  call, 
and  apparently  the  French  only  heard  from  Berlin  while 
the  raid  on  Paris  was  actually  happening.  If  the  Ger- 
mans had  been  anything  alive,  and  had  sent  warning  to 
the  French  in  time,  the  chances  are  that  the  airship 
would  have  been  intercepted  on  approaching  Paris. 
There's  a  rotten  thing,  if  you  like!  The  whole  chance 
of  getting  at  the  raiders  gone— and  all  because  the  Ger- 
mans were  too  busy  getting  excited  over  their  own 
affairs  to  think  of  anybody  else!" 

"You  realize,  of  course,  Sir  Thomas,"  I  said,  "that 
if  the  same  airship  raided  both  Paris  and  Berlin,  it 
must  be  up  to  doing  close  on  three  hundred  kilometres 
an  hour?" 

"I  hadn't  lost  sight  of  that,  Mr.  Boon,"  he  replied, 
"and  I  don't  know  what  to  think.  If  it  wasn't  the  same 
airship,  we're  left  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are  at 
least  two  in  Europe,  which  leads  to  the  possibility  that 
there  may  be  one  or  two  in  America — and  these  raids 
are  given  the  significance  of  a  real  war.  What's  the 
greatest  airship  speed  made  hitherto— can  you 
remember?" 

"Propert  with  his  America  did  nearly  two-twenty 
kilometres  in  an  hour's  spurt  off  Sandy  Hook  in  1926," 
I  reminded  him,  "but  a  puff  of  wind  buckled  his  ma- 
chine. It  was  too  light  in  construction." 

Good-bye 

«T  REMEMBER.  Phew!  Three  hundred  is  amaz- 
JL  ing  speed  for  a  dirigible — but — the  brain  that  can 
discover  a  gas  capable  of  putting  cities  to  sleep — will 
you  deny  it  the  ability  to  invent  a  machine  to  do  a 
mere  three  hundred  kilometres  the  hour?" 

"Nof me,"  said  L  "It  seems  to  me  we're  up  against 
one  of  the  cleverest  minds  of  the  century.  Where  did 
they— the  raiders — get  all  that  radium,  for  example? 
Lord  Almeric  was  asking  the  question  just  before  you 
arrived." 

"Blessed  if  I  know,"  said  Sir  Thomas,  very  much 
the  bewildered  soldier  for  a  moment.  "That  radium 
would  be  enough  to  float  a  company  in  the  City  with 
millions  of  capital — eh,  Pluscarden?" 

"Yes,  I  should  think  so,"  said  Lord  Almeric.  "But, 
Basildon — you  haven't  mentioned  the  damage  that  was 
done  to  the  Banque  de  France  " 

"Bless  me,"  said  Sir  Thomas,  helping  himself  to 
marmalade.  "Didn't  I  tell  you  what  happened  there? 
They  left  radium  as  usual— and  also  gold  ingots  valued 
at  twenty-five  millions  of  francs  " 

"What !"  Lord  Almeric  jumped  to  his  feet. 

"They  left  gold  valued  at  twenty-five  million  francs," 
Sir  Thomas  repeated  quietly. 

"What  madness  is  this  ?"  cried  his  lordship.  "It  is 
fantastic!  Incredible!" 

"I'm  giving  you  the  information  that  was  passed  to 
me,  Pluscarden,"  Sir  Thomas  said  distinctly. 

"My  dear  fellow — I  did  not  refer  to  you,  but  to  this 
action  of  the  raiders,"  Lord  Almeric  explained.  "Tell 
me,  did  you  learn  if  these  ingots  were  stamped  with 
any  government  mark?" 

"I  asked  particularly  about  that.  They  bore  no 
marks  by  which  they  could  be  identified." 

"It  is  astonishing.  I  can  find  no  real  motive  for 
any  of  the  raids— but  this — this — what  do  you  make  of 


it,  Basildon?" 

"I  can  make  nothing  of  it— especially  as  the  ledgers 
of  the  Banque  de  France  suffered  the  same  treatment 
as  those  of  the  Reichsbank — utterly  obliterated." 

"The  thing  seems  to  me  so  wanton — so  useless,"  said 
Lord  Almeric.  "The  trouble  that  must  ensue — no  rec- 
ord of  transactions — how  can  all  the  complications  that 
must  result  be  sorted  out?  It  is  monstrous  I" 

"It's  pretty  damnable,"  Sir  Thomas  agreed,  rising  as 
he  spoke.  "If  the  idea  of  the  raiders  is  to  bring  busi- 
ness to  a  standstill,  they  are  going  the  right  way  about 
it.  Well,  we  must  do  our  best  to  run  them  to  earth. 
Sitting  still  won't  do  any  good.  You'll  do  your  best 
when  you  get  back  to  America,  Mr.  Boon,  to  make  those 
in  authority  realize  the  position?  Your  father  will  help 
you  there." 

"I  shall  cable  Mr.  Boon  myself,"  said  Lord  Almeric, 
"and  Jimmy  here  will  supplement  my  efforts." 

"That  being  so,"  said  I,  "the  best  thing  I  can  do  is 
to  get  back  to  America  as  quickly  as  I  can.  I  can  do 
nothing  further  on  this  side,  Sir  Thomas  ?" 

"You  have  done  us  great  service  in  bringing  Lord 
Almeric  back  so  speedily,  and  in  telling  us  about  the 
American  raids,"  said  he.  "Your  work  is  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  But  I  shall  keep  you  posted.  If 
any  new  development  occurs  of  which  the  news  might 
heip  you  in  your  investigations,  I  shall  inform  you  as 
quickly  as  I  shall  the  police  over  there — depend  on  that. 
Now,  I'll  say  good-bye — and  wish  you  every  possible 
good  luck.  I  hope  we  shall  meet  again,  Mr.  Boon." 

"I  hope  so,  sir,"  I  said.  "Good-bye,  and  good  luck 
to  you,  sir." 

"Thanks.  Good-bye.  I  shall  see  you  later,  Plus- 
carden V 

"Yes.   I  intend  to  see  Jimmy  off — then  I  shall  be 
fully  available,  Basildon." 
"Good." 

Sir  Thomas  marched  off,  and  presently  Lord  Almeric 
and  I  were  driving  down  to  Battersea  and  the  Merlin. 

We  wasted  no  time  in  getting  away.  Lord  Almeric 
bade  Milliken  and  me  hearty  farewells,  and  to  a  cheer 
for  my  mechanic  from  his  English  confreres—  with 
whom  he  had  apparently  established  himself  a  favorite 
— we  took  off  just  before  ten  o'clock,  due  west  and 
headed  for  our  own  country.  With  our  luck  holding, 
we  reckoned  to  be  at  Gardiner  Bay  by  half-past  five, 
American  time. 

The  Return 

WE  were  flying  high  by  the  time  we  got  above  the 
Bristol  Channel,  and;  every  now  and  then  we 
would  pass  a  plane,  one  of  Sir  Thomas  Basildon's 
scouts.  He  must  have  sent  out  word  of  our  departure, 
for  we  were  not  challenged.  When  we  passed  near 
enough,  we  invariably  got  a  signal  wishing  us  good 
luck,  and  once  or  twice  a  voice  came  over  the  radio 
phone,  which  was  in  open  circuit,  with  a,  "Cheerio, 
Merlin — keep  your  eyes  skinned  going  overt" 

Once  above  the  open  sea,  I  gave  the  pilot  seat  to  Mil- 
liken,  and  turned  to  read  the  English  journals  I  had 
brought  with  me.  They  were  full,  of  course,  of  the 
raid  on  the  Bank  of  England,  and  for  the  most  part, 
the  story  was  told  without  much  flourish  or  waste  of 
words.  In  the  leading  columns  of  some,  the  fact  was 
glossed  over  that  the  government  had  been  caught  nap- 
ping with  a  policy  of  reducing  the  air  service,  and 
space  was  taken  up  with  useless  condemnation  of  the 
"criminals"  behind  the  raid.  Those  particular  journals, 
it  was  easy  to  see,  were  government  organs. 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


151 


The  papers  of  the  opposite  party  vigorously  rubbed 
in  all  the  damaging  facts,  and  were  brightly  humorous 
over  the  blackened  faces  of  the  Cabinet.  One  journal 
spoke  ponderously  of  the  affair  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons as  if  it  had  been  a  sort  of  negro-minstrel  show: 

THE  WESTMINSTER  TROUPE  OF  MINSTRELS 

There  has  long  been  a  suspicion  of  a  familiar  flavor  about 
the  nightly  entertainment  at  St  Stephen's  Hall.  Time  and 
again  some  chord  of  memory  has  been  struck,  and  we  have 
endeavored  in  vain  to  trace  where  we  had  heard  that  note 
before,  but  the  bright  idea  conceived  by  the  leading  comedian 
at  our  famous  house  of  amusement — nothing  more  subtle  than 
the  use  of  a  little  burnt  cork — revealed  in  a  flash  whence  came 
the  old  familiar  flavor.  The  Negro  Minstrels,  of  course  I 

"Bruddcr  Bones,  cane  yu  tail  me  the  siraularrity  between  an 
orphan  boy,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  a  bald-headed  man,  and  a 
monkey's  mother?" 

"No,  Brudder  Jawnsun,  ah  cane  not  tail  you  the  simularrity 
between— etc.,  etc" 

The  surprise  sprung  upon  us  was  an  elaborate  one.  It  was 
known  that  great  efforts  were  being  made  on  the  part  of  the 
management  to  provide  a  full-dress,  bumper  entertainment. 
None  of  the  leading  lights  of  the  Front  Bench  were  to  be 
missing;  from  corner-man  to  corner-man,  and  from  the  front 
row  to  the  back  bench  of  the  chorus,  the  full  complement  of 
the  company  was  to  be  turned  out  for  this  occasion  only.  We 
were  to  witness  the  screaming  absurdity  entitled,  "Too  Much  in 
the  Air." 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  entertainment  dragged  a  little 
at  the  start,  due  to  the  inclusion  of  too  many  stump  speeches 
in  the  programme. 

The  speakers,  morcver,  all  were  too  conscientiously  imper- 
sonating the  old-time  Members  of  Parliament,  and  it  is  a  well- 
established  axiom  in  the  art  of  entertaining  that  close  imitation 
of  familiar  types  need  not  necessarily  be  funny.  The  broad 
touch  of  burlesque  was  needed.  It  is  painful  to  report,  so 
tedious  did  the  show  become,  that  not  only  the  audience  fell 
asleep,  but  the  entertainers  themselves  were  lulled  into  peaceful 
slumber  1  Even  the  bright  particular  stars  of  the  Front  Bench 
were  affected,  and  fell  victims  to  their  own  soporific  platitudes, 
sleeping,  by  the  clock,  a  round  couple  of  hours. 

Whether  it  was  that  the  leading  lights  of  the  troupe  slowly 
awoke  to  a  realization  of  the  failure  of  the  show,  and  took 
swift  measures  to  rescue  the  situation,  or  that  the  boring  of  the 
audience  was  calculated  to  heighten  the  intended  surprise,  is  a 
matter  on  which  we  are  not  prepared  to  express  an  opinion.  It 
is  sufficient  to  say  that  when  the  other  occupants  of  the  hall 
woke  up  and  found  the  stars  of  the  Front  Bench  all  confessing 
the  real  significance  of  their  earlier  efforts  by  having  had  their 
faces  burnt-corked,  a  shout  of  laughter  went  up  which  bade 
fair  to  wreck  the  house.  The  pity  is  that  the  management  did 
not  introduce  the  surprise  earlier  in  the  evening,  instead  of 
taking  such  elaborate  measures  to  secure  one  big  laugh.  It 
would  have  given  point  to  the  coincident  occurrence  which  was 
taking  place  in  the  city.  ... 

With  a  modesty  not  habitual  in  popular  entertainers,  how- 
ever, the  leaders  of  the  troupe  hare  emphatically  disclaimed 
all  knowledge  of  how  the  delightful  surprise  was  worked,  and 
even  have  tried  to  attribute  the  happy  inspiration  of  the  burnt- 
cork  to  the  visitors  to  the  Bank  of  England.  In  their  haste  to 
be  so  wonderfully  modest,  they  have  almost  an  air  of  wishing 
to  convey  the  impression  that  their  efforts  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  evening  composed  a  serious  attempt  to  reduce  the  air 
services  of  the  country.  That  the  St.  Stephen's  troupe  has  some 
sort  of  right  to  discuss  such  an  important  matter  cannot  be 
denied.  But  if  the  troupe  really  was  trying  to  discuss  this 
serious  national  question,  and  really  was  determined  that  the 
air  service  of  the  country  should  be  reduced,  in  the  face  of  the 
outrage  on  the  Bank  of  England— which  might  readily  have 
been  prevented  by  an  adequate  air  patrol— their  participation 
in  the  affair  passes  beyond  a  joke.  It  is  no  joke  for  the  coun- 
try to  be  deprived  of  a  million  pounds  sterling,  while  black- 
faced  minstrels  occupy  scats  that  once  were  filled  by  statesmen, 
and  handle  matters  affecting  the  country's  weal  with  the  absurd 
insouciance  peculiar  to  their  kind.  .  .  . 

There  has  been  a  growing  feeling  throughout  the  country  that 
St.  Stephen's  is  hardly  the  place  for  antiquated  forms  of  amuse- 
ment, and  that  the  old  hall  should  be  brought  back  to  its  one- 
time dignity  as  a  chamber  for  the  serious  and  considered  gov- 
ernment of  the  nation.  Sharing  this  feeling,  we  venture  the  hope 
that  this  last  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Minstrel  Troupe  may 
prove  laughable  enough  to  laugh  them  from  their  benches. 
Should  this  consummation  be  reached,  we  for  one  will  be  apt 


to  reconsider  our  opinion,  and  regard  the  joke — for  joke  it  then 
will  be — as  the  only  one  we  have  ever  encountered  that  really 
is  worth  a  million  British  sovereigns. 

The  other  Opposition  journals  did  not  see  the  affair 
quite  that  way,  but  they  all  made  the  most  of  it  in 
their  own  manner.  It  seemed  to  me  more  than  likely 
that  the  English  Cabinet  would  be  laughed  out  of 
office. 

By  the  time  I  had  got  through  all  the  Sunday  papers, 
and  found  that  none  of  them  had  anything  to  add  to 
the  details  Sir  Thomas  Basildon  had  given  about  the 
Paris  and  Berlin  raids,  I  was  due  to  relieve  Milliken. 
It  was  close  on  one  o'clock,  London  time,  and  perfect 
flying  weather.  There  was  hardly  a  cloud  in  the  sky, 
and  below  us  the  sea  was  like  a  bowl,  deep  blue  in  the 
centre,  and  shading  off  to  a  delicate  green  at  the  sharp 
edge  of  the  horizon. 

We  had  left  the  police  machines  far  behind  us,  but 
we  were  passing  over  a  British  warship,  merely  a 
grey  dot  with  a  widening  streak  of  white  behind  it. 
Further  ahead  on  the  sea,  a  series  of  sinister  black 
shapes  was  spread  out  on  a  wide  line,  their  wakes  so 
definite,  and  the  black  smears  of  smoke  athwart  them 
so  copious,  that  we  knew  them  for  destroyers  traveling 
at  full  speed.  Later,  when  from  a  grey  shape  below 
us,  a  white  fleck  parted,  flickering  in  the  sun,  only 
experience  told  us  that  the  ship  was  a  plane-carrier,  and 
the  flickering  speck  one  of  her  machines  taking  off.  But 
though  we  must  have  been  in  sight  on  such  a  clear  day, 
we  passed  unchallenged.  In  a  few  minutes  these  ships 
of  war  lay  far  behind  us  over  the  edge  of  the  sea,  and 
only  now  and  then  would  we  see  the  squat  shape  of  a 
freighter,  the  more  graceful  lines  of  the  passenger  ship 
— plowing  along  in  the  slow,  placid  pursuit  of  their 
lawful  occasions. 

Noon  overtook  us  after  about  four  hours'  flying, 
about  two  o'clock  by  the  Greenwich  time  on  the  con- 
trol-board, and  after  that  the  sun  increased  his  lead 
south  of  us,  until  his  angle  narrowed  almost  to  dead 
ahead.  We  kept  a  strict  watch  for  the  airship  until 
after  six  by  our  clock,  and  giving  her  the  amazing 
dirigible  speed  of  three  hundred  kilometres  an  hour, 
by  that  time  we  should  have  overtaken  her,  supposing 
she  had  left  Paris  shortly  after  four  in  the  morning. 
But  the  sky  remained  clear  of  aircraft  until  the  time 
when  we  came  upon  American  machines,  with  warships 
in  convoy,  throwing  a  cordon  round  the  Atlantic 
seaboard. 

By  then  we  had  made  landfall  with  Cape  Race,  and 
little  more  than  two  hours  later  we  were  hovering  down 
into  Gardiner  Bay,  Long  Island.  I  had  had  a  radio 
put  through  to  my  father  telling  when  we  might  be 
expected ;  and  he  was  there  on  the  jetty  to  shake  Milli- 
ken and  myself  by  the  hand  when  we  landed.  The 
clock  in  the  hall  at  Hazeldene  was  striking  six  when  I 
sat  down  for  a  rest  and  yarn  with  the  old  man. 

A  New  Recruit 

TV  /lY  father  listened  with  his  usual  quiet  to  all  I  had 
1V1  to  tell,  only  putting  in  an  occasional  question  or 
two,  and  when  I  had  finished  he  nodded  satisfaction. 

"Sir  Thomas  Basildon  is  right,"  said  he.  "We've 
gota  long  way  to  go  before  we  reach  the  end  of  this 
business.  Well,  and  what  do  you  propose  to  do,  your- 
self ?  Is  there  any  way  I  can  help  ?" 

"Yes,  dad,"  I  said,  "there  is.  I  want  to  get  a  sorB 
of  roving  commission  with  the  air  police.  I  want  to 
be  my  own  master,  go  my  own  way,  and  work  along 
my  own  lines  with  Danny  Lamont  to  help  me.  A  sort 


152 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


of  general  permit  to  scout  about  in  the  Merlin — armed 
to  take  action  if  I  meet  the  raiders — that's  what  I'm 
after.   Can  you  fix  it  for  me?" 

"I'll  try.  The  authorities  are  not  likely  to  favor  any 
privateering,  but — you're  going  to  dispose  of  the  Mer- 
lin design  to  the  government  ?" 

"Yes,"  I  returned.  "And  that's  another  thing  I 
want  you  to  help  me  in.  The  Air  Board  knows  me  well 
enough — but  I  want  speed.  I  don't  want  to  be  hung  up 
in  Washington  for  weeks,  until  the  Merlin  is  tested." 

"The  Merlin  should  do  the  trick  herself — but  you'd 
better  get  straight  to  the  President,"  said  my  father. 
"I  can  fix  it  for  you  to  see  him.  Your  reputation  will 
stand  you  in  good  stead  there,  since  you're  not  likely 
to  be  putting  up  any  fool  ideas.  When  can  you  be  in 
Washington?" 

"Tuesday  morning.  I'll  fix  up  the  armament  be- 
longing to  the  old  Merlin  on  one  of  the  new  machines, 
and  be  fully  prepared  to  show  her  on  Tuesday.  Mil- 
liken  can  fly  the  old  Merlin  at  the  same  time,  and,  take 
a  mechanic  or  two  with  him.  I  don't  want  to  part 
with  the  only  armament  I  have.  I  might  have  to  wait 
weeks  for  another  equipment.  So  when  the  tests  are 
over,  I'll  remount  the  guns  on  the  old  Merlin  down 
there." 

"I  see.  Then  111  write  a  letter  personally  to  the 
President  right  away  so  that  hell  have  it  by  first  mail 
to-morrow." 

He  went  off  to  carry  out  this  idea,  while  I  made  for 
the  bathroom  and  a  change  of  clothing. 

"I  have  mailed  the  letter,"  said  my  father,  when  we 
sat  down  to  dinner.  "And  if  Ben  Whitcomb  won't 
do  me  the  favor  I  ask  him,  111  be  a  mightily  surprised 
man." 

"You  know  the  President  very  well,  then,  dad  ?" 

"We  were  together  as  struggling  young  men  at  one 
time,  Jimmy,"  he  replied — then  with  a  reminiscent 
smile :  "Golly !  What  a  lot  of  fun  we  got  out  of  that 
mighty  thin  time!" 

I  got  to  bed  early  and  slept  until  five  o'clock,  when 
I  went  down  to  the  workshops  to  get  a  start  made  with 
mounting  the  armament  on  the  new  Merlin.  Milliken 
was  on  the  spot  when  I  arrived,  and  under  his  direction, 
the  first  shift  was  getting  the  guns  ouf.  Dan  Lamonf 
turned  up  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  as  the  work 
was  well  ahead  I  had  time  to  give  him  all  the  news 
from  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  to  tell  him 
what  my  plans  were. 

"If  you  get  these  letters-of -marque,  Jimmy,"  he 
said,  "youU  have  to  sign  me  on  as  one  of  the  crew  " 

"But  what  about  your  laboratory  work,  Dan?"  I'll 
be  away  from  New  York  for  days  on  end,1  maybe 
months." 

"I  have  to  admit  that  this  job  has  me  beaten,  Jimmy," 
said  he.  "And  I  don't  like  it.  I  can't  get  at  the  tarnish- 
ing of  the  gold,  and  I  can't  discover  a  gas  that  will 
do  all  the  supposed  gas  of  the  raiders  can.  It  seems 
to  me  that  they  have  discovered  processes  miles  ahead 
of  present-day  ideas,  and  I  want  to  know  why  and 
how.  I  want  to  be  on  the  spot  next  time  anything 
happens,  and  since  you're  going  to  look  for  trouble,  it 
seems  to  me  my  likeliest  chance  is  with  you.  My 
laboratory  work  can  wait.  This  thing  has  got  me  going. 
I  particularly  want  to  know  where,  in  the  world,  there's 
enough  ore  to  produce  all  that  radium.  You'll  let  me 
in  on  this,  Jimmy?  If  I  don't  know  anything  about 
flying,  I  can  easily  learn  to  use  a  gun,  at  least — and — 
and — I'm  pretty  handy  with  a  skillet." 

"All  right,  Dan.   It's  a  bet.   Consider  yourself  en- 


tered on  the  ship's  books." 

He  took  hold  of  my  hand  and  wrung  it  as  if  I  had 
presented  him  with  a  medal. 

"You're  a  regular  good  fellow,  Jimmy,"  he  said. 
"And,  say,  Jimmy — if  there's  any  shortage  in  the — in 
the  ship's  chests— don't  forget  I've  got  sacks,  will 
you?" 

"I  won't  forget,  Dan." 

Nothing  would  content  him  then  but  that  I  should 
write  him  out  a  list  of  the  things  he  would  need  in  his 
kit,  and  when  that  was  done  he  made  for  New  York 
as  quickly  as  he  could  to  buy  the  stuff. 

The  new  Merlin  was  all  ready  late  in  the  afternoon, 
and  Milliken  and  I  went  up  in  her  to  try  her  for  speed 
and  for  the  synchronizing  of  the  forward  gun,  which 
was  an  arrangement  of  our  own.  She  answered  per- 
fectly. We  had  a  new  speedometer  fixed  which  was 
numbered  up  to  six  hundred  kilometres,  and  in  one 
short  burst  the  hand  touched  five-thirty.  In  that  fact 
alone  there  was  enough  to  make  the  government  ex- 
perts go  crazy  over  her.  Compared  with  the  fastest 
known  machine,  she  was  a  streak  of  lightning. 

I  will  own  that  when  I  stepped  ashore  after  the  tests, 
I  was  almost  drunk  with  excitement,  and  Milliken  was 
little  better.  I  was  all  impatience  to  hear  the  result 
of  my  father's  letter  to  the  President,  and  I  got  through 
to  the  old  man  on  the  phone. 

"I  was  on  the  point  of  ringing  you  up,  son,"  he  said, 
"but  you've  saved  me  the  trouble.  The  President  has 
this  minute  left  off  speaking  to  me.  He  says  he'll  be 
ready  to  see  you  at  eleven  o'clock  to-morrow.  And  I 
promised  him  you'd  be  on  the  doorstep  of  the  White 
House  right  on  time." 

"Fine,  dad." 

"I  won't  tell  you  what  he  says  to  your  proposition, 
but  he  was  mighty  flattering  to  your  old  dad.  YouH 
learn  from  him  to-morrow.  Say,  son — how  did  the 
new  Merlin  behave?" 

"I  won't  tell  you,  dad — but  it  was  mighty  flattering 
to  your  young  son.  You'll  learn  from  him  at  dinner." 

I  heard  him  chuckle,  but  it  was  characteristic  of  him 
to  put  up  the  receiver  at  once. 

A  Presidential  Conference 

AT  half-past  nine  next  morning,  the  original  Merlin 
,  took  off  with  Milliken  and  two  mechanics,  and  a 
minute  or  two  later  the  new  machine  with  myself  and 
another  couple  of  men  streaked  after  them,  headed  for 
Washington.  We  took  it  easy,  and  landed  in  the  sea- 
plane basin  of  the  Potomac  just  before  half-past  ten. 
Right  at  eleven  I  was  standing  on  the  doorstep  of  the 
White  House,  never  so  nervous  in  my  life.  I  had 
stepped  in  and  was  giving  my  card  to  a  servant,  when 
a  white-haired  little  sturdy  man  came  walking  swiftly 
down  the  passage  to  shake  me  warmly  by  the  hand.  It 
was  the  President. 

"You  must  be  young  James  Boon,"  said  he,  and 
opened  his  watch.  "Right  on  time.  Glad  to  see  you, 
Come  along  to  my  workroom  and  tell  me  all  about 
this  wonderful  machine  of  yours,  and  what's  this  free- 
lance policeman  notion  you  have." 

He  led  me  into  a  little  room,  furnished  half  as  an 
office  and  half  as  a  library. 

"Bless  me !"  said  he.  "And  so  you're  Jimmy  Boon's 
son.  Are  you  as  good  a  man  as  your  father?" 
"Not  by  miles,  sir,"  said  I. 

"Ah!  You  might  fall  that  short  of  him  and  yet  be 
a  good  man,"  said  the  President.  "Come,  now.  Just 
Jell  me  as  quickly  as  you  can  all  you  know  about  these 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


153 


raids.  They  are  a  matter  of  grave  concern  to  me.  Sit 
down — and  shoot!" 

Luckily,  I  had  all  the  facts  arranged  in  my  head, 
ready  for  such  a  revest,  and  I  was  able  to  give  him 
a  pretty  concise  summary  of  all  that  lay  within  my 
knowledge.  While  I  was  telling  him,  I  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  taking  in  something  of  his  personality.  I 
judged  him  to  be  hot-tempered,  generous,  and  yet 
obstinate.  A  difficult  man  to  drive. 

"H'm!"  said  Mr.  Whitcomb,  when  I  had  finished. 
"You  seem  to  have  kept  track  of  all  the  evidence  there 
is,  and  to  have  been  untiring. 

"I  am  glad  to  have  from  you  the  opinion  of  Sir 
Thomas  Basildon  and  of  Lord  Almeric.  It  is  better 
than  any  cabled  account.  This  is  a  very  serious  busi- 
ness, and  the  effects  are  already  disastrous—" 

He  rose  to  pace  the  room  in  impatient  short  steps. 

"There  is  a  financial  panic  in  London,  Paris,  and 
Berlin — business  is  being  brought  to  a  standstill  in  all 
those  capitals,  and  the  chaos  is  likely  to  spread.  The 
cables  this  morning  give  cause  for  the  deepest  appre- 
hension. Where  it  will  all  end  I  cannot  foresee.  The 
country  has  been  swept  from  North  to  South  without 
any  trace  being  revealed  of  these  marauders,  and  the 
Canadian  authorities  report  no  favorable  outcome  of 
the  search  of  their  territory.  But  we  must  keep  on, 
cost  the  country  what  it  may.  I  can  see  no  other  help 
for  it.  I  agree  that  our  only  chance  of  running  the 
raiders  to  earth  is  to  be  fully  prepared  for  every  emer- 
gency, to  be  certain  that  no  means  of  following  the 
slightest  clue  shall  be  neglected." 

He  turned  to  me  with  a  keen  look,  that  yet  passed 
over  me  as  if  to  some  greater  audience. 

"In  the  deciding  of  what  the  country  must  do  to  over- 
come such  a  terrible  and  bewildering  menace,"  he  said, 
"I  cannot  see  that  anything  is  to  be  gained  by  sticking 
close  to  rule  and  regulation.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe 
that  the  enterprise  you  offer  is  better  untrammelled. 
Therefore,  you  shall  have  every  permit  that  is  neces- 
sary, James  Boon.  I  do  not  know  from  what  point 
you  will  make  a  start,  but  you  may  have  the  luck— and 
I  will  venture  that  you  have  the  intuition  and  skill — to 
light  upon  some  clue  which  will  lead  to  the  clearing  up 
of  this  mystery." 

"Thank  you,  sir  I" 

His  regard  of  me  lost  that  absent  air. 

"No,"  he  said,  with  a  smile,  "don't  thank  me.  Thank 
rather  your  own  proved  value  as  a  citizen.  Or  if  you 
will  have  it  that  that  is  to  be  deprecated,  thank  two 
excellent  advocates  in  your  cause." 

"Two  advocates,  sir?" 

"Why,  yes.  My  old  friend,  your  father— and  my 
secretary." 

"Your  secretary,  Mr.  President?". 

"Would  you  like  to  meet  my  secretary?  Very  well, 
then— vou  shall."  He  went  to  a  side  door  and  called. 
"Kirsteen!" 

And  in  answer,  Miss  Torrance  appeared  at  the  door. 

"This  is  your  advocate,  Mr.  Boon,"  said  the  Presi- 
dent. "She  has  been  pleading  your  cause  ever  since 
she  opened  your  father's  letter  to  me." 

"I'm  awfully  grateful  to  you,  Miss  Torrance,"  I 
mumbled,  as  we  shook  hands. 

"Uncle  exaggerates,"  Miss  Torrance  declared.  "I 
only  pointed  out  that  it  would  be  foolish  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  lose  the  help  of  one  of  «ts  best  airmen  by 
sticking  to  silly  rules.  How  was  my  Uncle  Almeric 
when  you  left  him,  Mr.  Boon?" 

"He  was  wonderfully  well,  Miss  Torrance.  He  sent 


every  kind  message  to  you." 

"Dear  Uncle  Almeric !  And  how  is  my  friend,  Mr. 
Milliken?" 
"Fine.  He's  in  Washington  with  me." 
"I  must  see  him  presently.  And  the  Merlinf" 

"Great!"  I  said.  "She  has  three  sisters  now  " 

"That  reminds  me  of  duty,"  said  the  President,  open- 
ing his  watch.  "We  must  see  this  wonderful  Merlin. 
Ah!  Half-past  eleven.  The  Air  Secretary  and  his 
myrmidons  should  have  arrived/  Get  your  wraps, 
Kirsteen,  if  you  are  coming.  We  must  not  keep  them 
waiting." 

"Is  the  Merlin  to  be  inspected  at  once — to-day?"  I 
asked  in  surprise  at  this  hustle. 

"There  will  be  some  trouble  if  she  isn't,"  said  the 
President  grimly. 

CHAPTER  X 
A  Secret  Commission 

IN  the  new  Merlin  I  took  up  two  crack  pilots  and 
a  designer,  while  Milliken  in  the  original  machine 
carried  the  President,  Miss  Torrance,  and  a  bunch 
of  Delaware  Bay,  and  there  I  fooled  with  the  new  bus, 
doing  all  the  maddest  stunts  conceivable,  until  even  the 
pilots  with  me  were,  I  believe,  a  bit  scared.  The  speed 
of  the  machine  had  amazed  the  experts,  but  her  quick 
climb,  that  hovering  flight  of  hers,  and  her  astonishing 
qualities  in  manoeuvre  astonished  them  still  more.  Long 
before  we  were  back  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  and 
heard  the  enthusiastic  verdict  of  the  authorities,  it  was 
fairly  evident  that  the  Merlin  design  would  pass  to 
the  government  at  my  own  price. 

I  spent  the  afternoon  in  the  offices  of  the  Air  Board, 
going  over  the  drawings  of  the  machine  and  into  costs 
with  the  designers  there.  Meantime,  Milliken  and  two 
mechanics  had  gone  by  rail  to  Gardiner  Bay  to  bring 
back  the  other  two  new  machines,  which  were  to  be 
purchased  by  the  government.  When  I  rejoined  the 
President  and  Miss  Torrance  that  evening  for  dinner 
at  the  White  House,  I  had  in  my  pocket  a  bank  draft 
for  the  handsome  price  which  was  paid  for  the  Merlin 
design  and  the  three  new  buses.  The  quick  settling  of 
the  deal  was  due  to  the  President,  and  when  he  and 
Miss  Torrance  and  myself  were  alone  after  dinner,  I 
tried  to  thank  him.  He  put  a  hand  on  my  shoulder 
in  a  kindly  way,  shaking  me,  and  tried  to  stop  me 
saying  anything. 

"Why,  son,"  he  said,  "there  no  need  for  thanks.  You 
brought  along  your  design  just  when  it  was  most 
needed,  and  we'd  have  been  fools  to  let  what  Kirsteen 
calls  red-tape  hinder  the  concluding  of  the  bargain. 
We  ought  to  thank  you  publicly  for  giving  us  such 

a  wonderful  plane.  But  I  have  something  for  you  " 

He  produced  an  envelope  and  handed  it  to  me.  In 
it  was  a  letter  appointing  me  for  special  service  with 
the  air  police,  and  mentioning  Dan  Lamont  and  Milli- 
ken as  my  assistants. 

"Turn  back  the  front  of  your  jacket,"  said  Mr.  Whit- 
comb. and  when  I  did  so  he  pinned  a  little  silver  badge 
to  the  lining.  It  was  the  badge  of  the  Secret  Service. 

"There!"  said  he.  "Now,  in  the  morning  at  ten 
o'clock  you  will  go  to  this  address."  He  handed  me  a 
card  on  which  a  direction  was  pencilled.  "You  have 
only  to  give  your  name  to  the  doorman,  and  he  will 
take  you  right  to  the  man  who  nominally  will  be  your 
chief.  Don't  bother  to  ask  his  name.  It  is  seldom  the 
same  two  days  running.  I  want  you  to  see  him  because 
there  may  arise  an  occasion  when  it  will  be  impossible 
for  you  to  report  direct  to  me,  and  in  that  case  you 


154 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


will  report  to  him.  Ordinarily,  you  are  responsible  to 
nobody  but  Ben  Whitcomb.  Get  that?" 
"Yes,  sir." 

"Very  well,  then.  Burn  that  card  when  you  have 
memorized  the  address." 

"1  can  do  that  now,  sir,"  said  I,  and  dropped  the 
card  into  the  open  fire. 

"Good,"  said  the  President.  "Take  Lamont  and 
Milliken  with  you  to-morrow." 

"I  shall  have  to  get  Dan  Lamont  on  the  phone  right 
away,  then." 

"You'll  find  Dan  Lamont  at  your  hotel  when  you 
get  back  there  to-night,"  said  the  President  with  a 
smile. 

"Why— he's  in  New  York!"  I  blurted. 

"Not  at  all,"  he  laughed.  "He's  on  his  way  to 
Washington.  We  phoned  him  to  come  right  off,  and 
fixed  a  room  for  him  at  your  hotel.  At  least,  my  sec- 
retary did." 

I  turned  to  Miss  Torrance,  and  it  came  to  me  that 
she  was  just  the  prettiest  girl  I  had  ever  seen.  There 
was  a  little  faint  flush  on  her  cheeks,  and  her  eyes 
were  shining.  As  if  she  were  a  little  breathless  with 
some  excitement,  her  lips  were  slightly  parted. 

"It's  mighty  kind  of  you,  Miss  Torrance,"  I  mum- 
bled, "to  take  so  much  trouble  for  me.  I  don't  know 
how  to  thank  you." 

"Don't  try,  please— it  was  Mr.  Milliken  " 

"Milliken!" 

"Milliken  and  the  Merlin— and,  oh,  the  whole  thing," 
she  cried.  "You  two  and  that  lovely  plane— and  that 
modest  little  man,  Mr.  Lamont.  I  envy  you,  all  four. 
Next  to  being  a  man  myself  and  joining  you — the  best 
thing  I  could  do  was  to  see  you  got  your  chance. 
You're  lucky  in  your  friends,  Mr.  Boon." 

"I  am  that!"  I  said  warmly.  "Especially  if  I  may 
number  you  among  them?" 

Then  I  felt  my  ears  grow  hot,  and  my  neck  go  red 
at  blurting  this.  It  seemed  so  gauche  after  all  she  had 
done  for  me  in  friendship. 

"That  sounds  ungrateful  and  silly,"  I  stammered. 
"But  I  only  wanted  to  hear  it  from  you  " 

She  was  a  little  bit  rosy  herself,  but  she  held  out  her 
small  fist  in  a  frank  way,  and  her  serene  eyes  looked 
right  into  mine. 

"Isn't  that  the  American  way?"  she  smiled.  "To 
shake  on  it?" 

"Sometimes,"  I  said,  and  took  her  hand. 

"I'm  green  with  envy  at  your  luck,"  she  said,  "though 
you  deserve  it,  every  bit — but  I'm  with  you  and  the 
crew  of  the  Merlin,  heart  and  soul." 

"That's  just  fine  !"  said  I,  and  wished  that  kissing  a 
girl's  hand  was  still  the  fashion.  Presidency  I  took 
my  leave  of  her  and  her  uncle. 

A  Quiet  Interview 

SURE  enough,  when  I  got  back  to  the  hotel,  Dan 
Lamont  was  waiting  for  me  in  the  foyer.  He  im- 
mediately dragged  me  up  to  his  room  to  look  at  the 
new  kit  he  had  bought.  There  were  bags  of  it.  He 
must  have  about  cleaned  New  York. 

"Say,  Danny,"  I  remarked  to  him,  "what  do  you 
think  you're  making  the  trip  on — a  cargo-steamer?" 
"Aw,  Jimmy!"  he  pleaded.    "It's  just  a  few  little 

things  I  thought  we'd  find  useful  " 

"I  gave  you  a  list,  didn't  I  ?" 
"And  I  stuck  to  it,  Jimmy— faithfully.  I  got  three 
or  four  of  everything  you  said.   Then  I  got  them  to 
throw  in  some  extra  comforts  for  you  and  Milliken. 


"The  only  extra  comforts  that  Milliken  and  I  will 
appreciate,  my  son,  are  maybe  a  few  extra  bands  of 
shells,  or  another  litre  or  two  of  gasoline.  You'll  have 
to  leave  five-sixths  of  this  behind,  Dan." 

"I  know  I'm  a  goat  when  h  comes  to  spending, 
Jimmy,"  he  said.  "I  get  so  blamed  enthusiastic." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "when  you  bought  this  lot  you  cer- 
tainly were  in  no  fit  of  depression !" 

He  looked  at  the  collection  with  a  touch  of  despair 
for  a  minute,  then  he  brightened  up. 

"Tell  you  how,  Jimmy,"  he  said.  "Well  leave  this 
stuff  at  our  base  and  draw  on  it  whenever  we  want 
new  outfits." 

I  took  my  letter-of-marque  from  my  pocket  and 
flipped  it  over  to  him. 

'Then,"  said  I,  "perhaps  we'd  better  have  the  Presi- 
dent alter  this  so  that  youH  be  definitely  commissioned 
Quartermaster  General  to  the  Force." 

He  read  the  President's  letter  with  growing  excite- 
ment, then  danced  about  the  room. 

"Bully  for  you,  Jimmy!"  he  cried.  "Oh,  boy!  I 
knew  you'd  pull  it  off!" 

I  folded  back  my  jacket  and  showed  the  badge. 

"Consider  yourself  under  arrest,"  I  said. 

"My!"  he  gasped.  "You've  gone  and  joined  the 
Hicksville  Temperance  Cadets!" 

So  I  put  him  in  one  of  his  own  kit-bags. 

Next  morning  Dan  and  I  collected  Milliken,  who 
had  returned  to  Washington  late  the  previous  night 
with  the  two  new  buses,  and  the  three  of  us  then  went 
off  to  the  address  given  me  by  the  President.  It  turned 
out  to  be  a  modest  little  office  in  a  back  street.  With 
its  window-screen  of  colored  bamboo  beads  and  its 
brass  plate  on  which  the  name  had  been  made  unde- 
cipherable with  years  of  rubbing,  it  might  have  been 
the  office  of  either  an  attorney  or  some  old-fashioned 
importer. 

We  were  led  by  the  doorkeeper  into  the  presence  of 
a  quiet,  grey-haired  man  in  a  nondescript  grey  suit, 
who  presently  was  chatting  to  us  in  a  pleasant,  flat 
voice  that  seemed  to  have  no  high  lights  to  it.  He 
spoke  of  nothing  much  except  the  weather  and  the 
prospects  of  business  during  the  year. 

"Business  is  likely  to  be  a  little  upset  by  these  raids," 
I  ventured,  apropos  of  the  last  subject,  trying  to  give 
him  a  lead  to  our  particular  affair. 

"Ah,  yes,"  he  said  softly.  "Most  annoying — most 
annoying  " 

He  rose  and  held  out  a  limp  hand.. 

"Glad  to  have  seen  you,  Mr.  Boon — and  you,  Mr. 
Lamont — ah,  Milliken,"  he  said,  quietly  dismissing  us. 
"Ah — if  in  your  travels  you  should  have  any  affairs 
with  my  firm,  just  look  up  the  local  agent  for  Aunt 
Mandy's-  Soap.  You  won't  forget — Aunt  Mandy's 
Soap.  Buy  a  packet.  We  are  running  that  line  pretty 
strongly  at  the  moment.  Branches  everywhere." 

And  with  that  he  gently  shepherded  us  out  of  the 
office. 

"Well,"  said  Danny,  when  we  were  out  in  the  street, 
"what  do  you  know  about  that?  Aunt  Mandy's  Soap- 
buy  a  packet!" 

"When  in  doubt  we  buy  a  packet  of  soap,  and  so 
find  the  nearest  S.  S.  agent,  I  take  it,"  said  I.  "Queer 
sort  of  fellow  that — doesn't  seem  to  have  energy  enough 
to  wink  " 

"Got  us  weighed  up  all  right,"  grunted  Milliken. 
"Daren't  breathe  but  he  saw  it.  Stringy  guy,  too — 
wouldn't  like  to  fight  him." 

"Quit  joshing,  Milliken!"  I  protested.   "Why,  fie's 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


155 


like  a  wet  rag." 

"Don't  you  believe  it,"  Milliken  said  stolidly.  "Chest 
like  a  barrel.  Anns  like  a  monkey.  Notice  when  the 
pencil  rolled  off  his  desk?" 

"Not  particularly.  Why?" 

"Never  reacned  the  floor,"  Milliken  said,  gazing  af 
the  sky.  "Caught  it  without  any  noise.  Quickest  reflex 
I  ever  saw." 

Which  shows,  I  suppose,  that  if  Milliken  spares  his 
tongue,  he  makes  full  use  of  his  eyes.  Danny  and  I 
had  noticed  nothing  about  the  chief— as  the  quiet  man 
in  the  back  street  might  be  called — except  that  he 
seemed  bored  to  death  with  the  mere  effort  of  living. 

Flying  Orders 

'T*HE  next  ten  days  passed  slowly.  Milliken  and 
X  myself  were  engaged  in  demonstrating  the  new 
Merlin  to  the  government  flying-men,  and  at  the  same 
time  we  had  to  oversee  the  refitting  of  the  armament 
to  the  old  machine,  with  other  alterations  necessary 
for  our  campaign.  Dan  Lamont  was  kept  busy  col- 
lecting stores,  and  on  his  own  account  he  was  making 
a  selection  of  instruments  which  he  thought  might  help 
him  in  solving  scientific  problems  connected  with  the 
raiders. 

With  all  three  of  us  dead  eager  to  be  setting  out, 
the  delay  was  irksome,  but  we  consoled  ourselves  that 
we  were  doing  good  work  in  putting  the  pilots  wise 
to  the  efficient  use  of  the  machines,  and  that  in  any 
case  it  was  better  to  wait  for  the  next  move  on  the 
part  of  the  raiders. 

The  Merlin  was  fully  ready  for  action  by  the  middle 
of  the  week  following  our  commission.  The  fighting 
top  was  fixed,  and  we  had  shipped  all  stores  and  am- 
munition. She  carried  four  guns.  We  had  dispensed 
with  two  of  the  smaller,  so  that  we  now  mounted  the 
fore  and  aft  guns  firing  half-kilo  shells,  and  a  machine 
gun  on  either  quarter.  The  arrangement  was  that 
Milliken  or  myself,  whichever  of  us  happened  to  be 
piloting,  should  handle  the  bow  gun,  while  the  other 
should  work  that  at  the  stern.  Dan  Lamont,  if  not 
occupied  in  scientific  observation,  was  supposed  to  turn 
his  attention  to  the  quarter  guns,  firing  on  the  side 
handiest  in  any  encounter.  Incidentally,  he  proved  an 
apt  pupil  under  the  instruction  of  Milliken  and  myself. 
We  arranged  the  ammunition  bands  for  each  of  the 
guns  with  great  care,  so  that  there  would  be  no  hitch 
in  a  crisis,  and  we  put  the  spares  where  they  would 
be  handy  for  fitting  at  once. 

Dan  made  it  his  job  to  render  us  as  immune  from 
the  raiders'  gas  as  he  knew  how.  On  his  advice,  we 
laid  in  a  cylinder  of  oxygen,  and  fitted  air-tight  covers 
on  all  openings.  The  gun  embrasures  we  filled  with 
fabric,  double  pleated  like  camera  bellows,  and  pierced 
to  take  the  barrels  and  telescopic  sights  and  fitting 
tightly  to  them,  but  flexible  enough  to  permit  a  good 
arc  of  fire.  The  material  was  some  close-woven  as- 
bestos stuff  of  Dan's  own  choosing,  and  he  said  it 
would  not  only  keep  out  the  gas,  but  would  resist  the 
heat  of  the  gun-barrels  after  heavy  firing.  Our  gen- 
eral idea  was  that  should  we  get  into  action  with  the 
raiders  we  should  immediately  close  all  apertures,  turn 
on  a  thin  stream  of  oxygen,  and  do  our  fighting  from 
a  hermetically  sealed  cabin,  a  quicklime  apparatus  ab- 
sorbing the  carbon-dioxide. 

Dan  also  had  caused  to  be  fitted  under  the  hatch  a 
bottle  arrangement  for  automatically  taking  a  sample 
of  the  gas,  should  we  get  into  it. 

During  the  fortnight  in  Washington  we  frequently 


met  Kirsteen  Torrance,  and  her  uncle,  the  President, 
less  often.  She  was  inclined  at  first  to  think  us  a 
trifle  slack  about  getting  down  to  business,  but  the 
President  persuaded  her  that  we  were  doing  the  right — 
and  harder — thing  in  waiting.  Kirsteen  took  a  deep 
interest  in  our  preparations  and  was  often  in  the  Mer- 
lin's shed.  She  renewed  her  acquaintance  with  Milli- 
ken, who  greeted  her  every  appearance  with  his  widest 
grin  and  delighted  to  explain  to  her  the  smallest  detail' 
of  our  outfit.  We  thought  of  her  as  our  mascot 

We.  had  an  idea  that  the  next  of  the  raids  would 
most  likely  come  on  the  Great  Lakes,  and  we  decided 
that  if  we  got  no  news  by  the  evening  of  the  first 
Sunday  in  May,  we  should  make  a  hit-or-miss  start  for 
the  Buffalo  end  of  Lake  Erie  on  Monday  morning. 
News  came-  to  Washington  by  radio,  however,  that 
scrapped  our  plan  at  once.  Dan  and  I  were  having 
tea  with  Miss  Torrance  at  the  White  House,  when 
the  President  came  into  the  room  with  a  flimsy  in 
his  hand. 

"Flying  orders,  boys,"  he  said.  "Ships  have  been 
stopped  to-day  on  the  Cape  route  from  England." 

"At  what  point?"  I  asked,  and  got  to  my  feet  in  a 
hurry. 

"Northwest  coast  of  Africa— between  Madeira  and 
the  Canaries.    By  daylight,  too." 

"Come  on,  Danny,"  I  said.  "We'll  get  off  right 
away.  YouH  be  breakfasting  at  Funchal  by  five 
o'clock  to-morrow  " 

guick  work!"  said  the  President  approvingly, 
ood-bye,  Miss  Torrance.  Good-bye,  sir  

"Nay,  nay,"  said  the  President.  "Kirsteen  and  I 
will  see  you  off.  I'll  ring  for  an  automobile.  Well 
go  together." 

It  was  close  on  five  o'clock  when  we  took  off  from 
the  basin  by  the  Potomac,  and  a  dear  "Godspeed  I" 
from  a  bright-eyed  Kirsteen,  a  hearty  "Good-luck, 
boys!"  from  the  President,  were  the  last  words  we 
heard  as  we  set  out  on  our  venture. 

Fruitless  Searching 

NIGHT  came  on  us  very  quickly,  for  we  were  fly- 
ing towards  it,  but  while  the  light  lasted  Dan 
took  a  final  lesson  on  the  machine-gun  from  Milliken. 
With  the  dark  we  hit  into  a  severe  storm,  which  tested 
the  Merlin  very  thoroughly.  We  had  to  climb  high 
before  we  got  out  of  a  heavy  driving  rain,  and  when 
we  had  avoided  that  we  came  into  electrical  disturb- 
ances that  played  the  very  devil  with  our  compass.  It 
was  tricky  and  difficult  flying,  for  the  lightning  flashed 
above  and  below  us,  dazzlingly  brilliant,  and  the  at- 
mosphere was  terribly  pocketed,  so  that  we  pancaked 
in  a  most  sickening  fashion.  The  smash  of  the 
thunder-clouds  was  deafening.  There  were  times  when 
only  the  fact  that  Milliken  was  standing  on  his  feet 
persuaded  me  that  we  were  not  flying  upside  down. 
The  disturbed  area  must  have  covered  ten  degrees  of 
longitude,  for  we  were  in  it  close  on  two  hours.  At 
last,  however,  we  passed  out  of  the  storm  belt  and 
could  see  the  stars,  and  we  were  more  sure  of  our 
course  as  a  consequence. 

Milliken  and  I  spelled  each  other  every  two  hours, 
while  Dan,  once  the  interest  of  the  storm  was  over, 
slept  peacefully.  It  was  bright  day  when  we  sighted 
the  Azores,  though  our  clock  showed  only  half-past 
two.  Three  hours  later  we  were  swaying  gently  on 
the  swell  in  the  very  exposed  Bay  of  Funchal. 

Milliken  cooked  breakfast  on  the  gasoline  stove,  then 
after  a  visit  from  the  port  authorities  Dan  and  I  went 


156 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


ashore.  We  could  get  no  official  information  about 
the  raids  that  was  worth  considering.  The  Portuguese 
did  not  seem  to  care  a  red  cent  about  the  stopped  liners. 
We  had  better  luck  at  Bland/s,  where  Englishmen 
were  in  charge. 

There  were  three  acts  ot  piracy  on  the  Sunday,  two 
Union-Castle  liners  and  one  belonging  to  the  R.  M. 
S.  P.  Co.  being  the  victims.  In  each  case  the  strong- 
rooms had  been  the  objective,  specie  being  taken  from 
all  three  ships,  and  from  a  Union-Castle  liner,  which 
was  homeward  bound,  the  raiders  had  made  a  consid- 
erable haul  in  diamonds.  The  method  of  attack  was 
similar  on  each  ship :  a  sudden  descent  from  the  sky 
by  the  airship,  swift  and  unexpected,  and  almost  im- 
mediately the  anesthetizing  of  every  soul  aboard,  close 
on  a  brief  period  of  terrible  panic  among  the  passengers 
and  crew.  This  last  was  a  ghastly  feature  which  had 
been  missing  from  the  night  raids. 

For  a  week,  the  weather  being  fine  enough  to  per- 
mit a  stay  in  the  exposed  harbor,  we  made  Funchal 
our  base,  and  we  haunted  the  shipping  routes  from  the 
coast  of  Spain  to  the  Cape  Verde  Islands.  But  we 
had  not  the  luck  to  sight  our  quarry.  The  following 
Sunday,  while  we  were  making  towards  the  Azores, 
we  intercepted  a  radio  which  told  of  raids  on  the  north 
Atlantic  snipping.  We  filled  our  tanks  at  San  Miguel 
and  cast  a  wide  circle  north  into  the  sea  lanes,  flying 
until  dawn  on  the  Monday  morning,  without  result. 
We  returned  to  the  Azores. 

It  came  to  Dan  Lamont  and  myself  simultaneously 
that  these  very  islands  would  make  an  ideal  base  for 
all  the  known  operations  of  the  raiders,  a  notion  that 
seemed  to  hit  all  the  international  searchers  a  little 
later.  The  seaplane  base  began  to  fill  with  British, 
French,  American,  and  German  machines,  until  by  the 
middle  of  the  week  there  was  hardly  mooring  room  for 
another  bus.  Meantime,  Dan  and  I  had  gone  ashore 
to  test  the  Aunt  Mandy's  Soap  scheme.  We  bought  a 
packet,  and  sure  enough  made  the  acquaintance  of  an 
alert  young  American  who  had  an  office  in  a  quiet 
back  street.  We  did  not  need  to  introduce  ourselves. 
He  greeted  us  by  name  as  soon  as  he  saw  us. 

We  enlisted  his  help  for  a  search  of  the  Azores, 
and  while  his  dago  myrmidons  scoured  the  land,  we 
examined  every  nook  and  cranny  from  the  air.  We 
raised  no  game  whatever.  Altogether,  we  spent  an- 
other fruitless  week  in  the  Azores. 

"Look  here,"  the  distributor  of  soap  said  finally. 
"There's  a  dandy  landing-place  for  an  airship  on 
Madeira.  I've  just  remembered  it.  A  plateau,  Lord 
knows  how  many  feet  up,  towards  the  west  end  of  the 
island.  They  call  it  the  Paul  da  Serra — a  barren  place 
it  is — utterly  deserted.  I'd  give  that  the  once-over,  if 
I  were  you.  I  think  you're  on  a  false  trail  in  this 
particular  group  of  islands." 

Well,  we  were  just  sick  of  the  sight  of  all  that  un- 
used ammunition  in  the  cockpit  of  the  Merlin,  and  our 
soap  friend's  description  of  the  Paul  da  Serra  cer- 
tainly did  make  it  look  like  an  attractive  landing-place 
for  an  airship. 

It  was  nearly  a  fortnight  since  we  had  left  Wash- 
ington, May  was  more  than  half  over,  and  we  were 
still  short  of  the  fight  we  wanted.  Anyhow,  a  faint 
hope  seemed  better  to  us  than  none,  so  we  made  for 
Funchal  once  again,  with  the  intention  of  flying  over 
the  plateau  on  the  early  morning  of  the  next  day — 
Sunday,  it  was. 

As  luck  would  have  it,  this  was  the  time  chosen  by 
the  Merlin  for  her  first  breakdown.    It  was  noth- 


ing much,  just  a  fleck  of  enamel  stuck,  by  some  chance, 
in  the  jet  of  one  of  the  carburetors.  We  could  have 
flown  all  right,  but  Milliken  and  I  did  not  want  to  get 
away  with  two  cylinders  missing.  The  locating  of  the 
trouble  was  enough  to  delay  our  start  until  long  past 
dawn.  It  was  seven  o'clock  before  we  got  over  the 
plateau  and,  as  will  be  shown  later,  that  fleck  of  enamel 
lost  us  an  excellent  chance.  The  Paul  da  Serra  was 
bare  when  we  flew  over  it— but  it  had  been  occupied 
not  an  hour  and  a  half  before. 

It  was  the  merest  chance  that  sent  us  northward 
on  patrol,  for  we  had  considered  another  flight  to  Cape 
Verde  Islands.  But  northward  we  went.  There  are 
some  would  say  we  were  urged  by  fate. 

Battle  at  Last 

OUR  northward  course  had  lasted  barely  half  an 
hour,  when  far  below  and  ahead  of  us  there 
opened  out  a  situation  that  had  about  it  more  than  a 
touch  of  drama. 

Broadside  to  our  path  lay  a  liner,  spick  and  span  to 
the  smallest  detail  in  the  clear  air  of  the  summer  morn- 
ing, but  so  far  away  as  to  be  a  miniature  ship.  Almost 
nestling  on  her  tall  masts  there  hovered  the  long  silver 
shape  of  an  airship ! 

Dan  and  Milliken  were  doing  small  chores  in  the 
cabin  behind  me,  and  I  found  myself  calling  them— 
somehow  in  a  whisper. 

"By  Christopher,  old  man,"  Dan  breathed,  "we've 
got  'em  at  last!" 

Milliken's  only  comment  was  to  pull  the  breech-cover 
off  my  gun  and  set  the  belt  of  shells. 

"Keep  high,  sir,"  he  muttered,  when  that  was  done, 
"and  drop  on  them — quick!" 

"That's  the  idea,"  I  whispered.    "Close  all  open- 
ings. Action  as  rehearsed." 
"Right,  sir!" 

He  and  Dan  quickly  cleared  for  action,  while  I  gave 
the  engine  as  much  gas  as  it  would  take.  The  Merlin 
leapt  forward  at  dizzying  speed.  And  now  we  saw 
what  we  had  previously  missed,  that  we  were  not  alone 
in  our  hurry  to  the  scene.  From  the  cast  raced  a  war- 
ship, a  plane-carrier  we  could  see  from  her  forward 
platform,  and  British  from  the  fleck  of  white  and  red 
at  her  peak.  Her  distance  from  the  liner  could  not 
have  been  more  than  sixteen  kilometres,  and  the  white 
surge  at  her  stern  and  bows  showed  how  quickly  the 
distance  was  being  covered.  Neither  the  airship  nor 
the  cruiser,  I  felt  certain,  had  spotted  the  Merlin.  If 
the  cruiser  sent  up  a  plane,  we  would  have  to  be  spry 
to  get  in  the  first  shot. 

"Stations,  boys  I"  I  yelled,  then,  for  I  saw  the  airship 
begin  to  rise  from  the  masts  of  the  liner.  "IH  dive 
below  her,  Milliken.    Burst  her  as  we  pass  below!" 

"Aye,  aye,  sir!" 

Down,  down,  down  we  streaked — quicker  than  ever 
kestrel  swooped.  My  shoulder  was  snugged  in  the 
piece  of  the  gun,  and  my  finger  was  trembling  at  the 
trigger.  Up,  up,  up  to  meet  us  came  the  mass  of  the 
airship  till  her  side  loomed  like  a  great  wall.  I  flat- 
tened then,  and  every  fibre  of  the  Merlin  protested  at 
the  strain.  Suddenly  my  gun  blatted  as  of  its  own 
volition.  I  could  just  glimpse  the  gouts  of  flame  as 
the  shells  burst  in  the  grey  side  of  the  airship,  before 
I  had  to  dive  under  her— then  behind  me  I  heard  Milli- 
ken's gun  give  voice  in  a  prolonged  roar. 

The  enemy  must  have  risen  quickly,  for  I  found  the 
Merlin  still  a  good  height  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 
The  speed  of  the  dive— ^lone  with  the  engine  almost 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


157 


full  throttle— 4ook  us  far  beyond  our  quarry,  since  I 
could  not  turn  without  depriving  Milliken  of  his  shot. 
I  pressed  the  foot-bar  for  the  turn,  and  Danny  loosed 
off  -excitedly. 

"Hold  your  fire,  Danny  1"  I  yelled.  "We're  not  near 
enough  1" 

"Hell,  Jimmy !"  he  shouted.  "Gimme  a  chance,  will 
youl" 

Despite  my  climbing  turn,  we  had  lost  the  level  of 
the  rising  dirigible  and  we  now  had  to  climb  at  a  steep 
angle,  but  I  set  the  Merlin  to  the  task,  all  out.  She 
answered  willingly. 

High  above  us  floated  the  silent  grey  shape  of  the 
airship,  and  it  seemed  as  if  she  were  disdainful  of  the 
worst  we  could  do  her.  No  answering  burst  of  fire 
came  to  us,  no  sign  that  anyone  moved  on  her.  She 
was  uncannily  still.  It  was  amazing  that  she  still  could 
float  level,  for  at  least  three  of  my  shells  had  taken 
effect  on  her  envelope,  and  Milliken  was  not  the  man 
to  expend  ammunition  unless  his  target  was  plumb  on 
the  cross-hairs  of  his  gun-sight.  But  she  floated  hori- 
zontally, rising  quickly,  apparently  unharmed. 

We  were  gaining  on  her,  I  thought,  but  the  angle 
at  which  we  had  to  climb  seemed  likely  to  take  us  clean 
under  her,  so  I  gave  her  a  burst  of  shells  before  turning 
to  spiral.  As  we  came  round,  Danny's  gun  stuttered 
out  long  roll — it  must  have  been  nearly  a  drumfot — 
and  presently  Milliken's  heavier  metal  took  up  the 
ground  bass  of  the  chorus,  till  the  cabin  was  clamorous 
with  the  roar,  through  which  came  the  thin  tinkle  of 
spent  shells  falling.  Still  no  answer  came  from  the 
enemy. 

When  the  spiral  brought  us  round  so  that  the  grey 
shape  filled  the  field  of  my  gun-sight  again  I  began  to 
notice  that  the  ship  floated  in  a  thin  pinkish  haze  that 
shimmered,  as  one  sometimes  will  see  the  heat  do  as 
it  rises  from  a  hillside  in  summer.  It  was  a  curious 
effect,  curious  enough  to  hold  my  attention  even  in  the 
excitement  of  that  moment,  and  I  called  Danny's  atten- 
tion to  it  before  opening  fire  on  the  target.  But  as  I 
pressed  the  trigger,  the  haze  enveloped  the  Merlin  her- 
self, and  a  sort  of  dancing  refraction  spoiled  my  aim. 

"Wonder  if  that  haze  has  anything  to 'do  with  their 
gas?"  said  Dan  in  my  ear  as  we  swung  round  once 
more,  and  he  added  something  that  was  drowned  by 
the  noise  of  Milliken's  gun. 

Just  at  that  moment,  to  my  intense  disgust,  the  en- 
gine of  the  Merlin,  which  had  been  working  beauti- 
fully, gave  a  despairing  whine  and  petered  out.  I  felt 
the  bus  slip  back,  and  I  flipped  up  her  tail  so  that  we 
came  into  a  head  dive.  As  we  came  down  the  engine 
picked  up  and  failed  once  or  twice  in  an  odd  fashion, 
till  at  last— when  I  had  got  the  bus  into  her  steady 
hovering  descent— it  stopped  altogether.  We  alighted 
on  the  face  of  the  sea. 

At  once  Milliken  sprang  for  the  engine  hatch,  but 
Dan  Lamont  seized  him  by  the  arm. 

"Don't  open  anything  yet,  Milliken !"  he  yelled.  "Not 
yet — we're  still  in  the  haze.  It  might  be  the  gas !" 

"Gas— hell !"  said  Milliken.  "I  want  to  see  what's 
happened  to  the  engine  1" 

"Jimmy!"  Danny  cried  in  distress,  as  the  mechanic 
gently  put  him  aside. 

"Just  a  moment,  Milliken,"  I  intervened.  "Let's 
think  this  thing  out— Mr.  Lamont  may  be  right." 

"Right,  sir,"  said  Milliken,  and  stood  aside  at  once. 
Escape 

THE  pinkish  haze  lay  about  us  as  we  rode  the  sea. 
To  the  north  of  us  the  liner  still  wallowed  in  the 


troughs,  and  the  British  cruiser  was  coming  tip  hand 
over  fist  from  the  east.  The  airship  floated  motionless 
in  the  sky  to  the  south  of  us,  seemingly  none  the  worse 
for  our  attack,  nor  making  any  attempt  to  get  away. 
My  glance  fell  on  the  clock  attached  to  the  control- 
board. 

"Mighty!"  I  exclaimed  in  surprise.  "It's  hardly  ten 
minutes  since  we  sighted  her!" 

"What's  to  be  done  about  the  engine,  Mr.  Boon?" 
Milliken  demanded. 

"We'll  be  guided  by  what  Mr.  Lamont  says,  Milli» 
ken.  What's  your  notion,  Danny?"  I  asked. 

Dan  was  on  his  knees  working  the  bottle  for 
sampling  the  gas.  He  looked  up,  then  rose. 

"I've  worked  the  bottle,"  he  said,  "but  I  can't  test 
the  gas  here.  If  this  haze  is  what  I  think  it  is,  we 
can't  open  anything  for  long  without  being  doped. 
This  is  what  I  say.  It's  damned  unscientific— but  I 
don't  believe  in  tests  even  on  white  mice.  Let  me 
open  a  port  slightly,  and  take  a  whiff— I'm  certain  the 
raiders  are  averse  to  the  use  of  anything  lethal.  If  I 
keel  over,  shut  the  port  quick  and  bung  my  nose  up 
against  the  oxygen  tube,  and  leave  me  to  recover.  That 
will  be  enough  if  I  don't  show  signs  of  choking  " 

I  was  taken  aback  at  having  to  sanction  such  a  pro- 
ceeding, but  there  was  no  time  to  argue  the  matter. 

"You're  O.  C.  Stinks,  Danny,"  I  said  quietly,  "and 
what  you  say  goes.   Is  that  the  order?" 

"Sure  it  is,"  said  Dan,  a  little  breathlessly. 

"Right,"  I  said.  "If  I  didn't  think— I  pray  God 
it's  nothing  worse  than  the  usual  gas  " 

"I  don't  see  why  they  should  change  their  tactics 
now,"  said  Dan.  "If  I  don't  come  round,  try  the  ether 
injections  I  showed  you.  Stand  by,  boys." 

He  went  quickly  to  a  porthole  and  undid  the  screw, 
then  swung  the  cover  aside  and  stuck  his  head  out. 

"It's  the  ga — gas — allri' — "  he  muttered  with  a  funny 
little  smile.  Then  he  seemed  to  crumple,  and  I  caught 
him  as  he  fell.  Milliken  whipped  the  cover  back  into 
its  place  and  threw  in  the  fastener,  while  I  gently  laid 
my  friend  down  with  his  fair  head  against  the  oxygen 
nozzle. 

Whether  it  was  seeing  Dan  keel  over  in  that  fashion, 
or  that  Milliken  and  I  got  a  whiff  of  the  gas,  I  can't 
attempt  to  gauge,  but  we  both  had  the  symptoms  of 
being  pretty  sick.  I  know  that  when  my  mechanic 
went  to  fetch  a  pillow  to  put  under  Dan's  head,  he 
reeled  and  went  white,  while  I  was  as  dizzy-headed  as 
could  be.  Dan  was  breathing  quietly  and,  despite  our 
anxiety,  there  seemed  no  need  to  inject  ether  or  try 
artificial  respiration  as  he  had  showed  us. 

"Pluck,  if  you  like,  sir,"  Milliken  muttered,  and. 
very  gently  he  lifted  Dan's  head  and  put  the  pillow 
under  it.  That  was  all  we  could  do,  for  Dan's  shirt 
collar  was  open  and  his  clothing  loose.  We  made  the 
little  fellow  as  comfortable  as  we  could. 

We  were  just  rising  to  our  feet,  Milliken  and  I, 
when  the  cabin  shook  to  a  distant  thud.  A  wispy  ball 
of  smoke  was  drifting  from  one  of  the  barbette  guns 
of  the  cruiser,  and,  as  we  watched,  a  string  of  bunting 
was  broken  out  on  her  signal  halyard. 

"Look!"  said  Milliken.  "There's  a  plane  up!" 

Sure  enough,  while  we  had  been  attending  to  Dan, 
the  cruiser  had  catapulted  one  of  her  machines  into 
the  air,  and  it  already  was  climbing  after  the  airship. 

"Reel  out  the  aerial,  Milliken,"  I  said.  "We  might 
pick  up  a  message  or  something." 

I  switched  into  the  open  receiver  as  he  let  the  wire 
down,  then  we  watched  the  progress  of  the  fight.  The 


158 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


aeroplane  was  climbing  steadily  and  cleverly  after  the 
dirigible,  which  was  making  no  attempt  to  get  away, 
but  as  the  pink  haze  still  lay  about  the  enemy,  I  saw 
that  the  men  in  the  open  machine  would  be  doped 
before  they  could  attack.  I  sprang  to  the  radio  to 
warn  them  if  I  could — for  the  aerial  was  a  bit  short 
fof  sending,  since  we  were  afloat— but  just  then  a 
message  came  belting  across  the  phone: 

"His  Britannic  Majesty's  ship  Brilliant  to  the  damned 
pirate:  Surrender !"  came  the  voice.  "The  game's  up !" 

Immediately  came  the  calm  reply. 

"Airship  Ark  of  the  Covenant  to  H.  M.  S.  Brilliant : 
On  the  contrary,  the  game  has  not  yet  begun.  Don't 
be  absurd,  Brilliant!" 

A  second  machine  flashed  off  the  cruiser's  stage,  and 
began  to  soar  after  the  other.  I  switched  into  trans- 
mission. 

"U.  S.  seaplane  Merlin  to  H.  M.  S.  Brilliant,"  I 
shouted.  "Keep  your  pilots  out  of  the  pink  haze  round 
the  airship.  It  is  the  sleep-producing  gas !" 

"Thanks,  Merlin,"  came  an  English  voice.  "That 
was  a  jolly  good  try  of  yours.  Hope  you  aren't 
damaged?" 

"Don't  know  yet,"  I  said. 

Up  above  us  the  first  plane  opened  fire  with  a  ma- 
chine gun.  We  could  hear  the  "rat-tat-tat  I"  of  it.  But 
as  the  sound  came,  and  we  heard  the  warning  go  out 
from  the  cruiser,  we  saw  the  plane  enter  the  fringe 
of  the  haze.  Only  for  a  second  after  that  was  it  under 
control.  It  stalled,  then  got  into  a  spinning  nosedive, 
righting  just  before  it  crashed  flat  into  the  sea.  As  it 
crashed,  its  companion  also  went  out  of  control  on  a 
sudden,  though  it  had  not  reached  the  haze.  Then  it 
righted,  to  go  gliding  down  after  its  fellow. 

"That  wasn't  the  gas,"  said  a  voice  behind  us, 
startling  us.  "It  was  some  other  piece  of  devilment." 

It  was  Danny,  who  stood  behind  us,  fully  recovered. 
Milliken  and  I  each  grasped  a  hand  of  his,  silently. 
Thud-thud !  The  anti-aircraft  guns  of  the  cruiser  were 
speaking.  Thud-thud ! 

"Cease  fire,  you  idiots !"  same  the  voice  from  the  air- 
ship. "Stand  by  to  pick  up  your  airmen,  unless  you 
want  them  to  drown.  We  don't  want  to  sink  you  just 
yet." 

"Sink  and  be  damned  to  you!"  spluttered  a  British 
voice. 

"Tut-tut!"  the  calm  rejoinder  came  from  the  air- 
ship. "Don't  be  so  melodramatic.  You  sound  like  a 
penny  novelette.  Stand  by  and  pick  up  your  men. 
The  first  lot  are  unconscious.  Or  you.  Merlin — you  do 
it  Hurry!  Your  engine  is  all  right  and  you'll  find 
your  area  free  of  the  gas." 

Certainly  the  pink  haze  had  gone  from  our  vicinity. 

"How  about  it,  Danny?"  I  asked. 

"Take  their  word  for  it." 

Milliken  had  the  hatch  open  on  the  instant,  and  was 
down  on  the  floats  without  harm.  I  gave  him  contact, 
and  he  swung  the  propeller.  The  engine  picked  up  as 
if  there  had  never  been  anything  wrong  with  it. 

As  the  mechanic  climbed  in  through  the  hatch  and 
we  were  taxiing  along  to  the  rescue  of  the  drowned 
airmen,  we  saw  the  airship  assume  an  angle  of  forty- 
five  degrees  and  mount  at  incredible  speed  far  out  of 
range  of  the  now  silent  guns  of  the  cruiser. 

Presently  she  was  lost  in  the  upper  air,  apparently 
heading  for  the  African  coast. 

We  found  the  pilot  and  observer  in  the  first  machine 
inert  and  unconscious,  stretched  out  in  their  cockpit, 
which  was  filling  fast.  The  crash  had  sprung  all  their 


timbers,  and  we  were  just  in  time  to  drag  them  out  on 
our  floats  before  the  water-logged  plane  turned  her 
nose  down,  to  sink  with  the  weight  of  its  engine.  We 
hoisted  both  men  into  the  cabin  of  the  Merlin,  and  put 
their  heads  against  the  nozzle  of  the  oxygen  cylinder. 
Then  we  went  on  the  second  machine,  a  big,  amphibious, 
two-engined  de  Hamiville  fighter. 

Here  the  crew  were  in  better  case.  They  had  made 
a  good  landing  in  the  sea.  They  were  afloat  and  curs- 
ing their  engines,  over  which  they  were  clambering  in 
an  endeavor  to  locate  the  trouble  that  had  brought  them 
down.  We  persuaded  them  to  reconnect  their  leads 
and  flip  over  their  propellers.  To  their  intense  sur- 
prise, the  engines  acted  at  once. 

CHAPTER  XI 
Fastening  the  Net 

I<  a  little  the  cruiser  came  smashing  through  the 
seas  to  us,  and  a  casual  hail  invited  us  to  breakfast. 
With  the  big  fighter,  the  Merlin  was  hoisted  up  to 
the  landing-platform  and  snugged  down.  The  air  me- 
chanics of  the  ship  took  charge  of  Milliken,  and  Danny 
and  I  were  besieged  by  the  commissioned  officers.  The 
doped  airmen  were  still  unconscious  when  they  were 
taken  from  our  cabin,  and,  on  Danny's  advice,  the 
surgeon  ordered  the  sick-bay  stewards  to  put  the  two 
to  bed  to  sleep  off  the  effects  of  the  gas. 

The  cruiser,  meantime,  had  come  alongside  the  liner, 
and  in  an  excellent  display  of  seamanship  had  grappled 
her.  It  was  the  Parnassic  all  over  again.  Sleeping 
people  were  huddled  about  her  decks,  nor  could  any 
efforts  of  the  boarding-party  bring  them  to  conscious- 
ness. It  was  decided  to  take  the  liner  in  tow  to 
Madeira,  and  the  bluejackets  quickly  bent  a  cable  from 
ship  to  ship.  By  the  time  Dan  and  I  had  stepped  down 
to  the  wardroom  for  breakfast,  the  liner  was  being 
dragged  astern. 

At  breakfast  we  had  a  long  discussion  with  the  sail- 
ing and  flying  officers,  and  we  were  brought  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  raiders  had,  in  addition  to  the  gas,  some 
secret  means  of  disturbing  the  engines  of  planes.  There 
was  the  evidence  of  the  two  machines  forced  to  come 
down  in  the  raid  on  Paris,  these,  it  will  be  remembered, 
like  the  Merlin  and  the  big  de  Hamiville,  showing  no 
lasting  engine  trouble.  Dan's  theory  was  that  the 
raiders  had  a  ray  which  affected  the  electrical  circuits 
of  the  engines. 

He  also  had  an  idea  that  the  raiders  had  some  way 
of  controlling  their  cloud  of  anassthetizing  gas,  a  notion 
that  was  supported  by  the  officers  who  had  been  watch- 
ing the  show  from  the  cruiser's  fire-control  top.  The 
pink  haze  had  moved  about  from  position  to  position 
in  too  definite  a  manner  to  be  haphazard,  and  Dan  and 
the  officers  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  gas  had  been 
purposely  swept  from  the  vicinity  of  the  Merlin. 

Dan,  while  the  discussion  was  forward,  was  back  at 
his  old  trick  of  shaking  loose  change  in  his  cupped 
hands,  but  from  this  demonstration  of  his  interest  and 
excitement  he  drifted  into  a  mood  of  silent  cogitation, 
which  deepened  the  wrinkles  above  his  snub  nose  and 
gave  him  the  air  of  a  thoughtful  child. 

After  breakfast.  Milliken  and  I  went  over  the  Merlin 
on  a  general  overhaul,  and  found  her  none  the  worse 
for  her  straining.  We  took  off  from  the  deck  of  the 
cruiser  just  before  nine  o'clock. 
"Where  now?"  asked  Danny. 
"Mogador,"  said  I.  "We  owed  the  raiders  a  start 
for  their  humanity.  They  certainly  play  a  clean  game. 


THE  ARK  OF  THE  COVENANT 


159 


It  would  have  been  easy  for  them  to  have  left  the 
Merlin  in  irons  with  their  gas.  But  we're  going  to 
have  another  cut  at  them.  First,  we  must  refill  our 
tanks  at  Mogador,  and  get  a  message  radioed  from  the 
station  there  to  the  President  and  to  Sir  Thomas 
Basildon." 

"But,  Jimmy,"  Dan  objected.  "If  they  can  stop 
your  engines  once,  they  can  do  it  again.  How.  are  you 
going  to  get  over  that  ?" 

"I'm  not  quite  sure,"  said  I.  "I  think  the  notion  is 
to  get  well  above  them,  then  it  doesn't  matter  whether 
the  engine  is  stopped  or  not — a  glide  will  do  all  that's 
required.  Next  time,  I'm  not  going  to  waste  ammuni- 
tion on  the  envelope — they're  using  some  uninflammable 
gas— that's  plain.  I'm  going  straight  for  the  stern 
engines.  Did  you  notice  that  the  airship's  steering  was 
done  by  them?" 


"No." 

"Fact,  all  the  same?'  Milliken  put  in.  "The  whole 
of  the  stern  cabin  works  on  a  swivel." 

"It's  so,  Dan,"  I  said.  "And  that's  where  I'll  bust 
them,  or  bust  ourselves  in  the  attempt.  We  might 
have  the  luck,  too,  to  take  them  sitting." 

"How  do  you  get  there  ?"  Dan  demanded. 

"It's  my  notion  that  the  airship  we  attacked  works 
from  a  base  at  the  back  of  Morocco.  I'm  banking 
.enough  on  the  idea,  anyhow,  to  advise  Sir  Thomas 
Basildon  to  get  as  many  scouts  concentrated  round  the 
coast  as  he  can.  If  the  airship  comes  out  again,  we 
may  be  able  to  crowd  so  many  planes  round  her  that 
the  ray  you  imagine  will  have  more  to  handle  than  it 
is  able.  In  any  case,  the  place  wants  going  over 
thoroughly." 


W 


Aviation  Science -Fiction  Readers 


E  have  a  big  treat  in  store  for  you.  Be  sure  to  get  the  August  issue  of  SCIENCE  WONDER 
STORIES,  the  sister  magazine  to  AIR  WONDER  STORIES  magazine. 


The  greatest  science-fiction  magazine  in  print,  nothing  can  compare  with  it. 

Practically  all  of  the  authors  who  contribute  to  AIR  WONDER  STORIES  are  also  contrib- 
utors to  SCIENCE  WONDER  STORIES. 

SCIENCE  WONDER  STORIES  is  DRAMATIZED  MECHANICS.  It  mirrors  the  world 
of  the  future. 

And  if  you  are  interested  in  aeronautics  and  flying,  do  not  fail  to  read: 

The  Problems  of  Space  Flying 

By  Captain  Hermann  Noordung.  A.D.,  M.E..  Berlin 

A  scries  of  articles  now  running  in  SCIENCE  WONDER  STORIES.  They  are  not  fiction 
stories,  but  serious  technical  articles  by  one  of  the  greatest  engineers  of  Germany,  who  tackles  the 
problems  of  space  flying  from  a  practical  engineering  standpoint. 

Is  it  possible  to  travel  to  distant  worlds?  Captain  Noordung  answers  this  question,  not  only 
in  the  affirmative,  but  shows  us  how  we  can  do  it.  Himself  an  inventor,  he  gives  us  some  of  the 
most  astonishing  new  inventions  of  how  sp«ce  flying  will  become  a  reality. 


Don't  fail  to  see  the  announcement  on  page  100  of  this  issue. 


The  huge  craft  was  being  poshed  down  the  runway  by  the  powerful  catapult  at  an  amaz- 
ing speed.  A  moment  later  it  was  cruising  free  of  the  landing  station,  and  the  motors 
were  pulling  the  monster  up  to  the  higher  altitudes. 


160 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


161 


CHAPTER  I 
An  International  Crime 

pU  mean  to  say  that  you  can't  stop  the  air 
robberies  on  our  New  York-London  route?" 
said  Frank  Wallace,  assistant  manager  of 
the  International  Air  Line,  as  he  looked 
across  the  desk  at  his  visitor.  They  were 
in  his  office  on  the  thirty-sixth  floor  of  the  Aviation 
Building  in  New  York. 

"No,  of  course  not,"  answered  the  other,  "I  mean 
no  such  thing,  I  merely  want  to  say  that  it's  a  great 
task,  and  one  that  has  to  be  approached  with  great 
care." 

Albert  Riel,  the  speaker,  was  known  as  the  cleverest 
detective  of  Scotland  Yard,  and  had  been  assigned  to 
the  task  of  tracking  down  the  daring  air  raiders  that 
were  preying  on  the  rich  passengers  and  cargoes  of 
the  I.  A.  L. 

"Well,  I  suppose  you  must  do  it  in  your  own  way," 
replied  the  air-line  official,  "but  if  we  are  not  free  of 
these  air  bandits  soon,  the  line  will  have  to  cease  opera- 
tions on  that  one  route.  Why,  we're  the  talk  of  the 
world.  Our  own  company  detectives  can't  seem  to  do 
a  thing,  for  they  don  t  even  know  how  the  ships  are 
brought  down  onto  the  ocean.  It  is  a  mystery  worthy 
of  the  attention  of  the  best  detectives  on  earth.  The 
liner  flying  at  a  great  height,  suddenly  starts  to  coast 
downward,  until  she  is  resting  on  the  waves  with  her 
motors  idling.  Then  Mr.  Bandit  drops  out  of  the  sky 
in  a  little  white  plane,  and  walks  off  with  whatever 
he  wants.  The  Atlantic  Police  have  often  sighted  the 
raider  planes — " 

"Plane,  not  planes,"  corrected  the  sleuth,  "for  only 
one  has  been  seen  so  far." 

"Well,  plane,  then,  and  as  I  was  saying,  both  the 
American  and  the  British  police  planes  have  seen  the 
bandit  ship,  but  they  never  seem  to  have  been  able  to 
get  a  single  shot  at  it.  It's  no  wonder  that  the  papers 
ridicule  the  Atlantic  police  forces.  There  has  been  a 
total  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  offered  to  the 
party  that  downs  the  plane  or  learns  the  location  of 
its  headquarters. 

"Last  week  we  sent  a  police  plane  along  with  one 
of  our  air  cruisers;  the  ship's  speed  was  reduced  to 
less  than  half  of  its  usual  speed  so  that  the  small  plane 
could  keep  up.  But,  somehow  or  other,  the  police 
plane  was  lea  off  on  an  imaginary  chase,  while  the 
raiders  brought  down  the  liner  in  the  same  mysterious 
way,  and  got  away  with 
the  Government's  ship- 
ment of  gold,  that  was 
being  rushed  to  France. 
We  had  eight  armed 
guards  on  board,  and  yet 
one  solitary  unarmed 
bandit  walks  off  with  the 
money.  I  tell  you,  Riel, 
it's  getting  to  be  an  inter- 
national affair,  for  if 
they  can  successfully  re- 
pulse all  attempts  at  cap- 
ture and  keep  up  their 
work,  robbing  our  liners, 
then  what  could  they  do 
if  they  picked  on  the 
whole  world  in  general? 
Suppose  they — " 

"Suppose  you  give  me 


EDWARD  E.  CHAPMLOW 


J 


a  chance  to  talk," 
quietly  cut  in  the 
Englishman,  "and 
we  will  get  started 
all  the  sooner,  for 
time  is  valuable  as 
you  are  well  aware. 
Now  I'm  here  to 
advise  you  to  ship 
no  more  valuables 
at  present,  until  we 
are  able  to  stop  the 
raids." 

"We're  carrying 
very  few  articles  of 
great  value;  in  fact 
there  are  few  who 
will  risk  their  treas- 
ures or  their  lives, 
either,  on  our  ships, 
although  the  bandits  have  harmed  no  one  yet." 

"Well,  that  is  good  news,"  the  Scotland  Yard  repre- 
sentative said  as  he  reached  for  the  cigar  box  on  the 
desk.  "You  think,  perhaps,  that  I  have  just  been 
assigned  to  this  work,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have 
been  secretly  working  on  this  case  since  the  raids  on 
your  line  first  began,  as  our  master  criminal  is  well 
aware.  Therefore  I  know  what  we  are  up  against. 
But  first  I  want  to  tell  you  that  we  are  dealing  with 
the  most  scientific  crook  that  ever  existed ;  but  I  can- 
not discuss  the  case  with  you  here,  because  we  are 
exposed  to  our  foes." 

"What !  You  can't  talk  to  me  privately  in  my  own 
office?" 

"You  seem  to  forget  already  what  I  just  said;  that 
we  are  probably  dealing  with  the  cleverest  scientist 
living,  and  I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  he 
knows  as  much  about  what  happens  in  this  office  as 
you  do.  How  does  he  know  where  to  find  your  liners 
when  you  change  schedule  without  notice,  sending  them 
out  hours  ahead?  He  knows  all  about  your  business—" 
Riel  stopped  suddenly  in  the  middle  of  the  sentence, 
and  gave  a  slight  start  as  he  looked  down  at  his  wrist 
watch.  The  expression  on  his  face  changed  to  one  of 
alertness,  but  h  was  only  the  fraction  of  a  second  before 
he  recovered  his  former  poise,  and  only  a  close  observer 
would  have  noticed  anything  unusual.  However  the 
incident  did  not  escape  Wallace. 
"No,  I  don't  know  what  we  can  do  at  present,"  Riel 
continued,  a  slight  look 


T  J  ERE  is  as  extraordinary  a  story  as  has  ever 
21  been  our  good  fortune  to  read.  For  ad- 
venture, science,  aviation  and  general  hair-raising 
incidents,  you  will  have  to  go  far  to  match  it. 
It  is  one  of  the  stories  that  will  draw  a  great 
deal  of  comment  from  our  readers  on  account 
of  the  daring  of  the  author  in  portraying  the 
trend  of  our  progress  in  aviation. 

Yet,  there  is  nothing  impossible  or  improb- 
able within  the  entire  story,  not  even  the  mar- 
velous rays  used  by  the  arch-villain. 

When  it  comes  to  science  as  applied  to  avia- 
tion, we  have  not  as  yet  scratched  the  surface 
and  the  most  marvelous  things  are  as  yet  in  the 
dim  recesses  of  the  future.  Therefore  the  most 
improbable  predictions  of  our  present-day 
authors  will  be  commonplace  a  hundred  years 
hence. 


of  worry  passing  over 
his  face.  "We're  already 
using  double  the  normal 
number  of  police  planes, 
among  them  some  of  our 
swiftest  ships,  to  patrol 
along  the  route  of  your 
air  cruisers." 

Frank  Wallace  looked 
at  him  in  astonishment. 
Could  it  be  possible  that 
this  great  detective  had 
no  idea  of  how  to  cope 
with  the  situation?  He 
was  about  to  voice  his 
indignation,  when  a  look 
from  Riel  warned  him 
that  something  was 
wrong.  He  was  instantly 


162 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


alert,  straining  his  ears  to  detect  any  sound  that  would 
betray  the  presence  of  a  third  party.  But  only  the 
usual  sounds  of  city  life  could  be  heard.  The  humming 
of  planes  as  they  passed  his  window,  the  never-ceas- 
ing tread  of  feet  in  the  corridor  beyond  his  office,  the 
faint  sound  of  the  changing  plates  of  the  stock  market 
announcer  on  the  wall,  but  no  suspicious  sounds  could 
he  hear.  What  had  the  detective  heard?  Was  there 
really  someone  spying  on  him?  Wallace  paled  a  bit 
as  he  thought  of  it. 

"It  is  twelve  o'clock,"  Riel  was  saying.  "Suppose 
we  take  a  short  walk." 

An  Unseen  Shadow 

THE  air  line  official  made  no  reply,  Hut,  rising, 
reached  for  his  hat.  He  realized  that  there  was 
something  wrong,  for  he  had  seen  the  warning  look  in 
the  other  man's  eyes,  and  he  decided  that  the  best 
policy  was  to  remain  quiet  for  the  present. 

"Sub  level  three,"  Riel  informed  the  elevator  attend- 
ant as  they  stepped  onto  the  car ;  and  a  few  moments 
later  they  were  walking  along  the  lowest  street  level. 

It  was  the  noon-hour  and  the  towering  buildings  of 
New  York's  downtown  area  were  pouring  their  streams 
of  humanity  onto  the  three  street  levels — crowding 
them  to  the  limit.  Especially  the  lower  street,  which 
was  built  for  pedestrians  only.  Here,  the  wonderful 
window  displays,  the  bright  lights  of  the  theatres,  the 
stores,  and  dining-rooms  added  their  brilliancy  to 
the  countless  electrical  lights  of  all  colors  and  patterns, 
and  attracted  the  crowds  from  all  parts  of  the  great 
city.  It  was  the  White  Way  of  the  mighty  metropolis. 
The  heavy  traffic  assigned  to  the  second  level,  could 
scarcely  be  heard  from  below,  due  to  the  excellent  sound 
and  vibration-proof  construction  of  the  streets.  The 
present  street  system  was  a  great  improvement  over 
the  old  style  of  having  everything  on  one  level.  For 
now  merchandise  was  delivered  to  the  buildings  by 
a  sub-surface  freight  railway,  that  connected  all  of  the 
main  buildings,  and  provided  them  with  an  efficient 
method  of  receiving  and  shipping  the  constant  streams 
of  material.  The  aerial  landings  on  the  roofs  of  the 
buildings  also  provided  speedy  means  of  obtaining  serv- 
ice for  both  passengers  and  freight. 

There  was  little  said  as  the  two  men  made  their  way 
through  the  crowd  for  about  two  blocks,  and  entered 
a  dining  room.  Wallace  noticed  his  companion  steal 
another  look  at  the  wrist  watch  as  they  approached  a 
corner  table  furthest  from  the  entrance.  He  wondered 
what  curious  contraption  that  innocent-looking  wrist 
watch  could  be,  and  how  it  could  inform  the  wearer  of 
the  presence  of  a  spy. 

"We  can  sit  here  and  talk,"  Riel  remarked  removing 
his  hat,  "but  keep  off  the  robbery  subject,  for  we  are 
not  only  being  watched  but  overheard  as  well." 

The  official  gazed  uneasily  around  him  at  the  occu- 
pied tables,  but  no  one  seemed  to  be  paying  the  least 
bit  of  attention  to  them.  He  almost  decided  that  his 
friend  was  taking  the  precautions  simply  as  a  measure 
of  safety,  and  that  he  had  no  proof  of  any  one  shadow- 
ing them.  But,  then,  that  mysterious  wrist  watch  must 
be  serving  some  purpose;  and  he  tried  to  puzzle  out 
how  a  wrist  watch  could  be  fixed  up  to  tell  of  the 
presence  of  a  person  who  is  close  enough  to  overhear 
them. 

"What  makes  you  think  we  are  being  watched  ?"  he 
asked. 

"I  don't  think  so  I  know  it,  see  this  on  my  wrist?" 
the  detective  exhibited  the  watch  for  inspection.  "It's 


a  wrist  watch,  yes,  but  the  second  hand  is  not  a  second 
hand,  it's  a  small  compass  needle.  Inside  the  case,  be- 
sides the  works  that  drive  the  hour  and  minute  hands, 
I  have  a  coil  of  fine  wire,  located  so  that  when  it  is 
energized  it  will  swing  the  needle  to  a  position  pointing 
to  the  figures  six  and  twelve  on  the  face,  and  freeze  it 
in  that  position.  When  no  energy  is  passing  through 
the  coil  the  compass  needle  will  swing  f  ree — controlled 
faintly  by  the  magnetic  lines  of  the  earth.  Now  IH 
tell  you  something  that  I  have  not  told  you  before,  the 
bandits — " 

Riel's  serious  expression  quickly  changed  to  a  smile, 
and  Wallace  again  saw  the  warning  look  in  his  eyes. 
So  for  the  next  few  minutes  they  talked  idly,  remain- 
ing off  the  subject  of  interest.  Wallace  was  not  slow 
in  catching  on,  he  knew  that  in  some  way  the  watch 
indicated  the  presence  of  a  foe.  But  who  or  where  the 
spy  was  he  had  no  idea. 

The  detective's  arm  was  resting  on  the  table,  the 
watch  almost  concealed  by  his  cuff,  but  not  enough  to 
hide  the  compass  needle  from  view.  The  needle  was 
pointing  straight  at  the  stem  of  the  watch,  or  the  figure 
twelve,  with  its  north  pole.  But  another  look  from  the 
sleuth  caused  Wallace  to  take  his  glance  away  from 
the  needle.  He  noticed  that  his  friend  looked  at  it 
out  of  the  corner  of  his  eye,  while  he  carried  on  the 
conversation.  Suddenly  the  needle  was  released,  and 
swung  freely  around  as  it  sought  to  align  itself  with 
the  magnetic  north  and  south  poles  of  the  earth. 

"I  must  give  you  credit,"  Riel  smiled  across  the 
table,  "you  were  not  slow  in  catching  on." 

"Suppose  you  let  me  know  what  the  mystery  is," 
was  the  reply,  "before  that  confounded  thing  swings 
around  again." 

'Well,  they're  using  a  vision  ray  on  us,  and  this  de- 
tects the  ray." 

Wallace's  face  paled.  "Good  God,  man,  you  don't 
mean  that  they  have  been  watching  every  move  I've 
made  for  months  back?" 

"And  listening  too,  for  the  ray  picks  up  sound  waves. 
Now  before  we  go  any  further  put  this  on." 

The  detective  drew  a  second  watch  from  his  pocket 
and  passed  it  over  the  table.  "And  when  you  see  the 
needle  freeze,  remember  that  you  are  being  watched  as 
closely  as  I  am  watching  you.  And  be  careful  how 
you  look  at  your  indicator,  because  while  they're  watch- 
ing you,  they  may  notice  you  looking  at  it,  and  it's 
one  thing  we  don't  want  them  to  find  out  if  we  can 
help  it." 

"I  understand,"  replied  the  other,  strapping  on  the 
watch,  "and  you  can  depend  on  my  using  every 
precaution." 

The  Air-Line  Station 

««TT  is  of  no  use  trying  to  discuss  the  case  here,"  Riel 

1  continued,  "for  we  are  being  watched  too  closely 
with  the  ray.  There's  only  one  place  where  we  can 
talk  in  secrecy,  and  that  is  at  my  home  in  London. 
Now,  you  return  to  your  office  and  make  necessary 
preparations  for  a  few  days'  stay  abroad,  and  meet 
me  at  the  air-line  station  at  six  A.  M.  tomorrow. 
We'll  take  your  morning  ship  across." 

"The  first  doesn't  leave  until  ten  o'clock,  for  we've 
cut  down  to  four  trips  a  day.  Business  lias  become 
completely  dead  since  the  public  became  frightened." 

"Sh— !"  A  hiss  from  Riel,  and  he  knew  that  the 
ray  was  on  them  again.  A  cautious  glance  at  the 
watch  verified  it. 

"Then  "order  a  special  for  six  A.  M„"  the  detective 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


163 


quietly  replied.  It  is  my  best  chance  to  get  some  im- 
portant papers  over  to  London,  without  the  risk  of 
losing  them." 

Again  the  ray  left  them,  and  Riel's  face  became 
serious.  "Listen,  Wallace,  I'm  going  to  try  and  get 
some  important  papers  across  that  our  master  criminal 
is  after.  That's  why  we  want  to  slip  away  unnoticed." 

"Then  why  did  you  tell  me  about  the  plans  when  the 
ray  was  on  ?  He  heard  you." 

"I  will  explain  that  later,  but  now  I  have  to  leave 
you  before  the  ray  comes  on  again.  I  want  to  lose  it 
in  order  to  get  my  papers  from  the  bank  vault  in  secret. 
That  ray  can  penetrate  walls  and  see  beyond  them. 
I  will  meet  you  at  six  in  the  morning,  in  the  upper 
waiting-room  of  the  air  station." 

With  that  he  rose  and  hurried  from  the  room,  leav- 
ing his  friend  wondering  what  the  plans  were  that  he 
was  guarding  so  well,  and  why  the  master  criminal  was 
attempting  to  get  them.  Above  all  he  was  concerned 
with  what  they  had  to  do  with  the  raids  on  his  air 
cruisers. 

The  International  Air  Line  had  the  swiftest  trans- 
atlantic transportation  system  in  the  world,  connecting 
Paris,  London,  New  York  and  Los  Angeles. 

The  long  distance  flights  were  made  at  a  high  alti- 
tude— the  gigantic  triple-deck  planes  being  automatically 
guided  along  magnetic  beams  at  an  amazing  speed. 

The  landing  stations  were  built  on,  or  rather  sus- 
pended between,  four  gigantic  steel  towers  forming  a 
square.  Built  near  the  top  of  these,  the  station  con- 
sisted of  two  runways,  or  landing  tracks,  with  a  section 
of  the  station  rising  up  on  each  side  of  them,  and  a 
third  projection  between  the  two  tracks.  The  three 
sections  were  of  equal  height  and  the  roofs  perfectly 
flat  and  level ;  for  the  huge  wings  of  the  ships  passed 
over  them,  clearing  the  flat  tops  at  a  close  margin. 
The  whole  station  structure  when  viewed  from  above 
resembled  a  huge  wide  letter  "E,"  lying  on  its  back, 
and  held  up  in  the  air  by  four  long  legs.  The  three 
station  sections  running  the  length  of  the  runways, 
were  each  three  floors  above  the  tracks,  and  each  con- 
nected with  them  by  three  landing  platforms,  one  above 
the  other.  The  section  of  the  station,  located  between 
the  tracks,  was  used  by  the  cruisers  in  both  runways 
for  discharging  passengers  and  baggage,  while  the 
outer  buildings  served  to  load  the  liners  in  their  respec- 
tive runways. 

The  upper  deck  of  the  liner  held  the  first-class  pas- 
senger cabins,  the  front  end  of  which  consisted  of  an 
observation  compartment.  Here,  large,  low  windows 
formed  a  half  circle  around  the  front  of  the  deck, 
offering  an  excellent  view  of  things  below,  although 
the  ships,  during  the  long  flights,  usually  flew  at  such 
a  height  that  there  was  little  to  see  during  the  trip. 
The  entire  deck,  with  its  luxurious  furnishings  and 
trimmings,  its  comfortable  sleeping  cabins  and  faultless 
dining  service,  offered  all  the  comforts  and  accommo- 
dations of  a  first-class  hotel.  Connection  with  the 
decks  below  was  established  by  means  of  a  noiseless 
floor  selector  or  elevator ;  while  a  second  elevator  con- 
nected the  dining  room  with  the  kitchen  on  the  lower 
deck,  The  second  or  intermediate  deck  of  the  air 
cruisers  held  the  second-class  compartments,  and  was 
equipped  somewhat  similar  to  the  first-class  section 
above.  The  lower  floor  contained  the  baggage  rooms, 
crew's  quarters,  operating  and  control  rooms. 

The  triple-floor  station  platforms  running  along  both 
sides  of  the  two  runways,  served  to  connect  the  baggage 


and  waiting  rooms  of  the  station,  with  their  respective 
liner  decks.  Off  the  two  upper  platforms  the  ticket 
offices  and  waiting  rooms  were  located,  while  the 
baggage  and  supply  rooms  were  on  the  level  of  the 
lower  loading-platforms.  Guide  rails  passed  along  the 
outer  edges  of  the  loading  platforms,  and  small  rollers 
on  the  ships  engaged  these  rails,  guiding  them  through 
the  station ;  while  skids  or  projecting  strips  on  the  bot- 
tom of  the  cruisers  slid  into  slots  in  the  bed  of  the 
runway  that  were  fitted  with  rollers,  reducing  friction 
to  a  minimum.  This  was  of  great  benefit  in  starting 
out  from  the  station,  enabling  the  hydraulic  catapult 
to  give  the  cruiser  the  necessary  speed  to  leave  the 
runway.  The  smooth,  quick  stop  of  the  liners  was 
accomplished  by  means  of  hydraulic  brakes  placed 
along  the  platform  edges,  just  above  the  guide  rails. 
These  brakes,  when  applied  against  strips  of  special 
material  on  the  sides  of  the  cruisers,  were  capable  of 
quickly  stopping  them,  even  when  they  entered  the 
station  at  a  high  speed.  But  there  was  little  variation 
in  the  landing  speed,  for  the  ships,  when  approaching 
the  station,  were  automatically  guided  in  by  a  magnetic 
landing  beam.  These  beams,  similar  to  thet  ones  used 
to  guide  the  liners  over  their  routes,  were  set  at  a 
level  with  the  runways,  and  not  only  enabled  them 
to  hit  the  runways  accurately,  but  also  adjusted  the 
speed  of  the  ship. 

Five  powerful,  high-speed  electric  motors  were 
mounted  on  each  wing  and  connected  directly  to  indi- 
vidual control  panels'  in  the  control  room.  Therefore, 
if  one  motor  went  out  of  order  during  flight,  it  could 
be  cut  out  of  service  by  the  operator  without  inter- 
fering with  the  others.  The  power  was  furnished  by 
twin  generators,  each  driven  individually  by  a  gasoline 
engine,  and  each  set  capable  of  operating  the  ship  inde- 
pendently in  case  the  other  developed  trouble.  The 
complete  power  system  was  such  that  there  was  very 
little  chance  of  a  forced  landing  being  caused  by  engine 
trouble. 

A  group  of  colored  signal-lights  was  located  on 
both  upper  and  lower  sides  of  each  wing,  while  another 
group  was  attached  on  the  nose  or  front  end.  All  of' 
these  were  controlled  from  the  operating  room. 

CHAPTER  II 
Ready  to  Start 

THE  location  of  the  control  or  operating  room  was 
in  the  front  part  of  the  lower  deck.  The  compli- 
cated mass  of  automatic  electrical  control  equip- 
ment was  mounted  on  a  number  of  slate  panels,  forming 
an  arc  which  extended  from  the  front  of  the  operator, 
around  on  both  sides.  The  panels  were  about  two  feet 
from  the  floor  and  about  four  feet  high,  leaving  room 
below  for  the  hand  and  foot  levers  of  the  emergency 
manual  control.  Directly  in  the  center  of  the  panel 
board  was  a  number  of  meters.  The  largest  was  the 
velocity  meter  controlled  by  the  speed  indicator  which 
was  attached  to  the  outside  of  the  ship.  The  velocity 
control  was  operated  by  the'  automatic  radio  control, 
and  its  speed  setting  by  the  altitude  regulator,  which 
was  adjusted  to  operate  when  the  meter  reading  was  at 
a  certain  point.  This  made  it  possible  to  keep  the  altitude 
control  unit  accurately  timed,  which  was  an  important 
thing.  On  the  right  of  the  meter  panel,  was  the  auto- 
matic radio  control,  consisting  chiefly  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  electro-magnets,  fixed  coils  and  sensitive  relays. 
When  the  liner  entered  the  field  of  one  of  the  magnetic 
beams,  the  automatic  radio  control  was  thrown  into 


164 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


action  by  the  beam,  and  automatically  kept  the  craft 
in  the  center,  or  densest  part,  of  the  beam. 

When  Mr.  Wallace  stepped  from  the  elevator  after 
a  rapid  ascent  to  the  I.  A.  L.  station,  and  entered  the 
waiting  rooms  of  the  eastbound  track,  he  found  his 
friend  waiting. 

"Here  so  soon?"  was  Riel's  greeting.  "Well,  we've 
got  almost  twenty  minutes  to  wait." 

"No,  the  special  should  be  here  soon,  because  I 
ordered  it  for  5.45." 

Just  as  he  spoke,  a  bell  rang  and  the  train  announcer 
lit  up: 

SPECIAL  47L  N.  Y.-LONDON.  0  T.  5.45. 
"On  time,"  added  the  official,  looking  up  at  the  an- 
nouncer. "It  must  be  coming  in  on  the  landing  beam 
now." 

"How  far  out  from  the  station  does  the  landing 
beam  extend  ?"  the  sleuth  asked. 

"Ten  miles.  Our  landing  beam  projectors  are  lo- 
cated below  the  runways  here.  One  beam  is  thrown 
east  from  the  westbound  tracks,  the  other  extends  the 
same  distance  west  to  guide  the  eastbound  ships  in." 

"But  when  the  ships  leave  the  upper  beam  and  drop 
down,  entering  the  landing  beam,  is  this  done  by 
manual  or  automatic  means?" 

"Automatic,"  replied  Wallace.  "We  have  a  beam 
crossing  the  upper  one  at  a  certain  distance  out,  approxi- 
mately thirty  miles  from  here  or  twenty  from  the  end 
of  the  landing  beam.  When  the  ship  hits  this  cross 
beam  the  radio  control  is  thrown  out  of  contact,  which 
causes  the  velocity  regulating  unit  to  also  throw  out, 
shutting  off  the  motors,  while  the  altitude  regulator  is 
thrown  into  its  lower  setting,  which  is  the  height  of 
the  landing  beam.  The  liner  then  glides  down  at  a 
comfortable  angle  until  it  enters  the  lower  beam.  Here 
the  altitude  regulator  rights  it,  and  the  beam  causes 
the  radio  control  to  operate  and  throw  in  the  velocity 
unit,  but  in  a  lower  speed  setting.  The  motors  drive 
the  cruiser  along  the  lower  beam  at  a  greatly  reduced 
speed,  guided  automatically  by  the  radio  control." 

"Sounds  all  rights,"  Riel  answered,  "but  what  pro- 
vision have  you  made  for  failure  of  the  ship  to  strike 
the  lower  beam?" 

"We  have  the  ship  equipped  with  a  complete  installa- 
tion of  manual  control  equipment,  by  which  the  pilot 
can  lower  the  landing  wheels  and  bring  the  craft  to  the 
emergency  landing  fields  in  case  the  automatic  equip- 
ment fails;  and  as  to  missing  the  lower  beam  when 
coming  down,  that  is  almost  impossible.  For  with  the 
cruiser  going  at  a  definite  speed  and  in  a  definite  direc- 
tion, and  the  decline  started  at  a  certain  point,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  it  will  arrive  within  a  reasonable  dis- 
tance of  the  beam  area.  Of  course,  the  air  currents 
throw  it  out  some,  but  the  pilot  can  easily  make  the 
slight  adjustments  necessary  by  the  use  of  the  manual 
controls.  For  the  area  in  which  the  ships  strike  the 
lower  beam  is  well  marked  by  day  and  plainly  illumi- 
nated by  night.  The  liners  also  carry  a  special  radio 
beam  indicating  unit,  used  when  the  weather  makes  the 
guiding  lights  invisible.  But  suppose  we  step  out  on 
the  platform,  our  ship  should  be  here  by  now." 

The  huge  cruiser  could  be  seen  approaching  about 
two  miles  west,  on  a  level  with  the  station,  and  it  was 
scarcely  more  than  two  minutes  before  she  entered  the 
runway,  sliding  in  between  the  guide  rails  with  amaz- 
ing accuracy,  and  coming  to  a  quick  but  smooth  stop 
in  the  station. 

To  one  who  had  never  seen  the  air  liners  enter  and 
leave  the  station,  it  was  indeed  an  interesting  sight  to 


watch  the  approach  of  the  huge  triple-deck  cruiser  with 
its  monstrous  wings.  But  once  inside  the  station,  only 
a  partial  view  of  it  could  be  seen  from  one  place.  Be- 
cause of  the  platforms  passing  close  to  the  sides  of  the 
ships,  only  one  deck  could  be  seen  from  any  one  plat- 
form or  waiting  room. 

"There  is  no  crew  on  this  ship  except  one  operator," 
the  official  informed  his  friend,  as  they  stepped  into  the 
upper  compartment.  "We  are  carrying  nothing  in  the 
way  of  baggage,  and  I  left  even  the  kitchen  crew  be- 
hind, to  be  sure  that  we  would  not  be  disturbed  on  the 
trip.  But  I  have  a  lunch  here  in  my  hand-bag  in  case 
we  get  hungry  before  arriving." 

"Your  precautions  were  hardly  necessary,"  smiled 
the  detective,  "but  nevertheless  it  is  just  as  well,  for  we 
know  who  is  aboard." 

Scarcely  had  they  seated  themselves,  than  the  doors 
of  the  three  decks  slid  shut,  the  hydraulic  brakes  were 
released  with  a  hiss  and  the  huge  craft  was  being 
swiftly  pushed  down  the  runway  by  the  powerful  cata- 
pult, gaining  speed  at  an  amazing  pace.  A  moment 
later  it  was  cruising  free  of  the  landing  station.  As 
the  ship  left  the  runway,  a  pressure  contact  on  the  side 
was  released  automatically,  throwing  the  altitude  con- 
trol unit  into  operation  in  its  high  setting.  Simultane- 
ously the  velocity  regulator  was  automatically  thrown 
into  contact,  and  the  motors  were  soon  pulling  the 
monster  rapidly  up  towards  the  higher  altitudes. 

Ready  for  a  Hold-Up 

THE  oxygen  distributing  system  was  already  in  use 
throughout  the  ship,  relieving  the  difficulty  of 
breathing  in  the  thin  upper  atmosphere.  The  gradual 
leveling  of  the  liner  indicated  its  approach  to  the  upper 
magnetic  beam,  and  as  the  altitude  regulator  cut  out,  the 
beam  caused  the  automatic  radio  control  to  make  con- 
tact, throwing  the  velocity  regulator  into  its  high  speed 
setting.  Under  its  control  the  battery  of  motors  began 
to  increase  speed,  until  the  cruiser  was  heading  east 
at  the  amazing  speed  of  four  hundred  miles  an  hour. 

"Did  you  notice  any  disturbance  on  your  wrist  watch 
while  we  were  in  the  station?"  Riel  asked,  as  the  cruiser 
gained  speed  along  the  beam. 

"No,  for  the  time  being  I  forgot  about  it,"  was  the 
reply.  "Do  you  expect  them  to  stop  us  this  time?" 

"Yes,  I  do."  Riel  shook  his  head.  "I  expect  them 
to  bring  us  down  before  we  get  over.  It  is  an  ideal 
day  for  them,  dull  and  cloudy,  making  it  easy  for  them 
to  get  away." 

"I  doubt  it,"  Wallace  said.  "I've  got  extra  police 
on  the  job  to-day,  just  hoping  they  will  make  a  try, 
and  the  pilot  has  been  told  to  sound  the  radio  alarm 
as  soon  as  he  finds  the  ship  leaving  the  beam." 

"When  did  you  give  these  instructions,  when  you 
ordered  the  special?" 

"Yes,  I  phoned  the  air  sheds  from  my  office  and  also 
gave  orders  to  have  the  radio  alarm  inspected  care- 
fully, and  the  pilot  well  instructed  as  to  its  use." 

"And  how  many  pilots  have  set  off  the  alarm  during 
a  robbery?" 
"Well—" 

"Quiet,"  hissed  Riel,  as  he  saw  the  needle  of  his 
watch  freeze  stiff,  "I'll  take  the  papers  from  my  brief 
case,"  he  continued  in  a  natural  voice,  "and  hide  them 
under  my  seat  in  case  we're  held  up.  Can't  run  the 
risk  of  losing  them." 

A  moment  later  the  needle  swung  freely,  and  the 
men  were  free  to  talk. 

"What  was  your  idea  of  talking  about  hiding  the 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


165 


papers?"  Wallace  asked. 

"Just  to  prove  to  you  that  they  are  able  to  hear  us 
as  well  as  see  us.  There  is  no  doubt  but  what  well 
be  brought  down,  and  to  prove  my  words  you'll  find 
that  the  raiders  will  look  under  the  cushion  of  my 
chair,  before  searching  my  case,  although  we  will  not 
put  the  papers  under  the  chair  cushions.  But  you 
haven't  answered  my  last  question  yet.  I  want  to 
know  how  successful  your  radio  alarm  is." 

"So  far  it  hasn't  been  very  successful,"  admitted  the 
air-line  official.  "In  fact  only  two  pilots  made  use  of 
it  at  all  during  robberies  and  those  times  were  after 
the  raiders  had  thoroughly  robbed  the  liners  and  left." 

"And  on  another  occasion  one  of  your  police  plane 
escorts  left  the  liner  and  flew  off  on  a  false  chase  of 
the  raiders,  while  the  ship  was  brought  down  and 
robbed?" 

"Yes,"  Wallace  nodded.  "Of  course  we  can  hardly 
blame  the  police,  if  they  see -a  chance  to  chase  the 
raiders.  But  there  is  one  instance  where  the  bandits 
used  two  planes,  one  as  a  decoy  to  lead  the  police  away 
and  the  other  to  rob  the  ship." 

"No;  you  are  wrong,  Wallace,  for  I  know  that  they 
are  using  but  one  ship." 

"Impossible!"  insisted  the  official  indignantly,  "for 
the  police  chased  the  raider  over  one  hundred  miles, 
and  as  soon  as  they  lost  sight  of  it  they  returned  to  the 
cruiser.  That  plane  could  not  have  got  back  and  com- 
mitted the  robbery  before  the  police  returned." 

"Now  listen,"  Riel  bent  over  towards  his  companion, 
"I'd  like  to  tell  you  all  I  know  about  this  case  and 
explain  some  of  these  things  for  you;  but  to  do  so 
would  most  positively  spoil  my  plans,  but  later  you 
will  know.  Now  watch  your  indicator  close,  and  warn 
me  by  a  cough  if  the  ray  comes  on.  I'm  going  to  hide 
these  papers  and  I  don't  want  you  to  know  where  I 
put  them.  Turn  your  back  this  way.  There  now, 
remember,  watch  that  indicator  closely." 

Riel  quickly  unbuckled  the  brief  case,  removed  the 
papers,  and  going  to  the  other  end  of  the  room,  slipped 
them  behind  a  safety-first  cabinet  on  the  wall,  and 
quickly  returned  to  his  scat. 

"What  are  you  up  to  now?"  his  friend  inquired. 

"Just  this.  I  thought  when  I  first  took  up  this  case, 
that  the  vision  ray  and  the  means  of  detecting  voice 
waves  were  the  most  powerful  instruments  our  raider 
had.  But  later  I  found  that  he  was  using  some  mys- 
terious force  that  we  are  yet  unfamiliar  with.  If  I  am 
right,  then,  this  wizard  is  merely  playing  with  your 
cruisers,  perhaps  to  introduce  himself  in  a  mild  way 
to  the  world,  and  that  he  has  power  enough  to  whirl 
every  man  of  this  earth  around  his  thumb.  Unless  I 
am  wrong,  he  can  make  governments  do  what  he  wants 
them  to  do.  In  a  few  minutes  he  can  start  one-half 
of  the  world  fighting  against  the  other  half  and  can 
make  bank  presidents  bring  their  loads  of  gold  to  his 
door  without  knowing  that  he  exists." 

Frank  was  by  this  time  staring  at  the  other  in 
amazement. 

"You  mean  that  he  can  create  all  this  havoc  and  not 
give  himself  away?" 

"His  vision  ray  might  give  him  away,  but  the  other 
power  will  keep  anyone  from  using  the  clue  to  trace 
him  down,"  continued  the  sleuth.  "I'm  warning  you, 
Wallace,  we'r?  taking  a  chance,  for  if  he  ever  takes  a 
notion  to—" 

"We're  going  down,"  Wallace  exclaimed,  his  voice 
shaking  with  excitement,  as  he  felt  the  nose  of  the 
ship  tip  downwards. 


"Sit  still,"  cautioned  his  cool  friend,  "leave  it  all 
to  me  and  don't  talk." 

The  faint  hum  of  the  motors  had  ceased  and  the 
cruiser  was  gradually  losing  altitude  and  speed,  de- 
scending at  about  the  same  angle  as  when  dropping  to 
the  landing  beams.  Down  through  the  heavy  banks 
of  clouds  it  came,  until,  with  a  rocking  motion,  it 
settled  to  a  stop  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean. 

CHAPTER  III 
A  Polite  Visitor 

WALLACE  was  indignant.  He — one  of  the  high- 
est officials  of  the  International  Air  Lines — 
robbed  on  one  of  his  own  liners.    He  vividly 
imagined  the  laugh  the  newspapers  would  have  at  his 
expense.   His  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  the  roar 
of  the  wireless  announcer  built  in  the  ceiling : 

"Just  be  patient,  gentlemen,  and  I  will  soon  be  with 
you.  I  will  also  acquaint  you  with  the  fact  that  re- 
sistance will  only  mean  your  death,  for  I  am  protected." 

A  side  glance  at  his  watch  showed  that  the  ray  was 
on.  He  heard  the  air  being  released  as  the  doors  of 
the  lower  deck  were  opened,  and  a  moment  later  the 
small  elevator  was  rising  to  the  upper  floor, 

"We  may  as  well  give  in,"  thought  Frank,  as  the 
elevator  door  opened  a  moment  later  and  a  well-dressed 
intelligent-looking  man  of  about  thirty  stepped  into 
view.  "We'd  better  give  the  man  the  papers  and  let 
him  be  gone.  It  won't  pay  to  resist." 

Riel's  face  was  a  mystery.  It  was  as  expressionless 
as  it  could  be ;  but  as  the  man  advanced  down  the  aisle, 
his  expression  changed  and  showed  more  interest  in 
events. 

"Well,  gentlemen,  I  hope  you  will  not  keep  me  wait- 
ing for  the  papers,  but  to  save  you  the  trouble  I  will 
help  myself." 

He  lifted  the  cushions  of  the  two  chairs  and  a  baffled 
look  stole  over  his  face,  but  he  quickly  recovered  his 
former  expression  and  turning  toward  the  English- 
man, and  with  all  the  ease  and  politeness  of  a  host, 
remarked : 

"I  trust  you  will  speed  my  departure  by  assisting  me 
in  the  search  for  the  papers." 

"I'll  get  them  for  you,"  the  detective  replied,  and 
walking  over  to  the  hiding  place,  drew  the  papers  out. 
Wallace,  meanwhile,  was  searching  the  brief  case  in  a 
vain  attempt  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the  caller. 

"I  thank  you  gentlemen  for  your  assistance,"  the  gay 
caller  addressed  them,  as  he  put  the  papers  in  his  pocket 
and  stepped  onto  the  elevator.  "Perhaps  I  will  call 
again  in  the  near  future  and  stay  longer." 

The  two  men  remained  standing,  gazing  at  the  spot 
where  the  elevator  had  disappeared.  They  heard  him 
cross  the  lower  deck,  and  Riel,  suddenly  returned  to 
action,  looked  out  of  the  window  and  saw  a  small  white 
plane  below  close  to  the  baggage  room  door.  A  moment 
later  it  was  cutting  across  the  water  and,  rising  swiftly, 
soon  disappeared  among  the  clouds. 

"Well  ?"  Riel  regarded  his  friend  with  a  quiet  smile. 
"We  gave  them  the  papers,  but  the  raid  was  of  more 
benefit  to  us  than  to  them." 

"But  what  is  his  purpose?  Because  he  hears  of  us 
bringing  some  papers  over  he  grabs  them." 

"This  is  something  I  cannot  tell  you  until  we  get  to 
London,  but  now  we'll  go  down  to  the  operating  room 
and  talk  with  the  pilot." 

"Well  our  bandit  will  have  a  warm  time  of  it  this 
time,"  Wallace  commented  as  they  shot  down  to  the 


166 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


lower  deck.  "Not  only  were  there  a  dozen  police 
planes  in  the  neighborhood  when  we  came  down,  but 
the  pilot  would  send  out  the  call  on  the  radio  alarm 
as  soon  as  he  started  to  come  down." 

"Your  pilot  didn't  I  se  the  radio  alarm,"  was  the 
sleuth's  quiet  reply.  "You  will  discover  that  when  we 
get  to  the  operating  room." 

As  they  crossed  the  lower  deck  toward  the  front  of 
the  craft,  they  could  fe»l  the  huge  cruiser  begin  to 
move  forward  with  rapidly  increasing  speed,  until  it 
was  tearing  through  the  water  at  a  fast  rate  and  a 
moment  later  was  in  the  air  again. 

In  the  operating  room  they  found  everything  normal, 
and  the  pilot  on  the  job. 

"Did  you  use  the  radio  alarm?"  demanded  Wallace 
as  he  opened  the  door  leading  into  the  control  room. 

"Let  me  handle  this,"  cut  in  the  Scotland  Yard  rep- 
resentative before  the  embarrassed  pilot  could  answer. 
Turning  to  the  pilot  he  asked,  "Now,  young  man,  why 
did  you  bring  down  the  liner?" 

Wallace  was  amazed  at  the  question,  but  said  nothing. 

"Well  you  are  right  when  you  say  I  brought  her 
down,  for  I  did.  The  automatic  radio  control  was  not 
working  right,  and  I  intended  to  try  and  adjust  it. 
But  now,  when  I  recollect,  it  was  a  foolish  thing  to  do 
because  I  could  have  finished  the  trip  with  the  manual 
controls." 

"And  have  you  fixed  the  control  ?" 

"I  just  tested  it  out  and  I  find  that  it  is  now  work- 
ing all  right." 

"It  looks  funny,"  fumed  Wallace,  "that  you  have 
to  bring  the  ship  down  just  at  the  time  the  robbers 
arrived." 

"It  isn't  his  fault  although  he  thinks  it  is,"  Riel 
quietly  informed  him.  "I  must  remind  you  once  more 
that  we  are  dealing  with  a  very  clever  foe.  Meanwhile 
we  can  return  to  the  upper  deck." 

Turning  to  the  operator  he  added :  "If  you  get  any 
calls  asking  why  we  descended,  just  say  that  we  were 
making  tests,  and  deny  any  statement  that  the  raiders 
have  been  here." 

A  Deadly  Weapon 

««TT  TELL  I  found  out  what  I  wanted  to,"  Riel  said 

VV  as  he  dropped  into  his  chair  a  few  moments 
later.  "Our  clever  friend  is  the  most  powerful  man  in 
the  world.  He  has  us  all  at  his  mercy  and  no  doubt 
he  is  a  maniac  and  will  sooner  or  later  turn  our  earth 
into  a  living  hell  just  to  demonstrate  his  power  over 
his  fellow-man.  I  tell  you,  Wallace,  we've  got  to  act 
quickly,  quietly  and  surely  while  he  is  content  to  play 
with  small  things  like  this  line  of  yours.  One  thing 
we  know  is  that  the  wizard  doesn't  know  of  our  wrist 
watch  indicators  yet.  We  have  one  chance  in  a  thou- 
sand of  keeping  them  secret,  for  he  already  knows 
that  his  ray  is  traceable.  The  radio  instruments  of  a 
plane  are  affected  when  the  machine  passes  through  it, 
and  the  reception  of  radio  messages  is  disturbed  by 
the  ray's  magnetic  action." 

"Then  you  know  where  the  beam  is  coming  from." 

"We  have  a  very  good  idea  of  its  location,  yes.  But 
the  exact  spot  is  not  known." 

"Then  why  don't  you  trace  it  down  with  your  planes, 
if  it's  so  easy  to  follow?" 

"That  has  been  tried,  yes,  tried  too  often  before  we 
discovered  the  power  the  man  held  over  the  rest  of 
the  world." 

"You  mean  that  the  ray  contains  some  deadly  ele- 
ment that  is  fatal  to  anyone  passing  through  it  ?" 


"No,  the  vision  ray  is  harmless  in  itself,  otherwise 
you  and  I  would  be  dead,  for  we  have  had  it  on  us 
more  than  once.  We  are  able  to  follow  the  ray ;  but 
few  that  have  tried  it  have  lived  to  tell  of  their  experi- 
ences. The  first  attempt  was  made  by  your  own  gov- 
ernment, who  thought  someone  was  illegally  using  a 
radio  beam  for  wireless  signals.  A  plane  was  sent  out 
to  trace  the  ray  down,  and  it  has  not  been  heard  from 
since." 

"Probably  shot  down  by  the  raiders  when  they  saw 
the  plane." 

"No,  Wallace,  it  wasn't  shot  down.  A  deadlier 
weapon  was  used  on  the  plane  before  it  got  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  the  wizard's  base.  The  next  attempt 
to  trace  the  vision  ray  was  made  by  the  New  York 
Detective  Bureau  after  the  robberies  of  your  liners 
started.  You  remember  where  the  wreck  of  their  police 
plane  was  found  next  day." 

"But  there  must  be  an  explanation;  those  ships 
wouldn't  fall  down  without  a  reason,  surely  the  wizard 
can't  do  all  this  with  hundreds  of  miles  between  him 
and  his  foes." 

"A  little  later,"  continued  the  detective,  "the  ray 
began  to  be  coupled  with  the  raids  on  your  air  cruisers, 
but  it  was  kept  a  close  secret  by  the  police.  Scotland 
Yard  sent  two  swift  well-armed  planes  to  search  for 
the  ray.  They  picked  it  up  at  noon  the  next  day  and 
followed  it  southwest.  They  never  returned.  The  two 
machines  suddenly  turned  on  each  other  and  fought'  a 
deadly  gun  duel  to  the  death.  One  went  down  in  flames 
and  the  other  flew  a  few  miles  south  and  suddenly 
without  warning  swooped  downward,  diving  straight 
down  into  the  ocean  with  engines  roaring  at  full  speed. 
Another  time  an  unofficial  adventurer  was  seen  follow- 
ing the  ray  by  one  of  our  planes.  He  was  cruising 
along,  not  over  one  hundred  miles  an  hour  when  to  the 
horror  of  the  observing  plane  he  leaped  from  his  ship 
into  the  ocean  below,  followed  closely  by  his  uncon- 
trolled plane.  Orders  have  been  given  to  all  ocean 
police  to  allow  no  one  to  follow  the  beam  when  it 
comes  on  the  air." 

"Then  the  ray  must  drive  its  victims  mad." 

"The  vision  ray  itself  is  harmless,  but  something  else 
is  being  used  with  it,  possibly  another  ray.  Now  we'll 
drop  the  subject  until  we  reach  London,  then  we  will 
try  and  find  a  way  to  deal  with  the  situation." 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  would  have  liked  to  learn 
more  about  the  case,  Wallace  decided  that  it  was  best 
to  remain  quiet  and  wait. 

Riel  Gives  Some  Orders 

DARKNESS  was  settling  over  the  land  when  they 
left  the  transatlantic  beam  and  coasted  gently 
down  into  the  area  of  the  landing  beam.  And  it  was 
but  a  few  minutes  more  before  the  cruiser  came  to  a 
smooth  stop  in  the  London  station. 

"Well,  here  we  are,"  Riel  remarked,  rising  from  his 
seat.  "Now  we'll  probably  be  trailed  by  the  ray,  so 
be  careful  what  you  say." 

Leaving  the  ship  they  stood  on  the  platform  a  moment 
and  watched  the  special  leave.  There  were  perhaps  a 
dozen  persons  standing  around,  most  of  them  waiting 
for  the  Paris  liner. 

"We'll  go  up  to  the  offices  and  have  a  talk  with  your 
London  manager,"  the  detective  said  as  they  passed 
through  the  waiting  room.  "I  called  him  from  New 
York,  so  he  will  be  waiting  for  us.  Then  we  will  go 
out  to  my  place." 
A  speedy  elevator  soon  brought  the  two  men  down 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


167 


to  the  subterranean  railway  entrance  and  while  they 
waited,  for  a  train,  Riel  glanced  around  at  the  crowd 
as  was  his  custom,  taking  no  special  look  at  any  one, 
but  noticing  a  surprising  number  of  things  in  each 
casual  glance.  There  was  a  large  crowd  on  the  plat- 
form, for  it  was  the  evening  rush  hour,  when  the  city's 
factories  and  skyscrapers  were  pouring  their  thousands 
into  the  streets.  A  workman  in  overalls  with  a  dinner 
bucket  in  his  hand,  stood  behind  the  pair.  He  received 
a  second  glance  from  the  detective,  but  whether  it  was 
because  he  was  standing  in  a  place  that  looked  suspi- 
cious, or  whether  the  sleuth  was  just  checking  up  to 
see  if  he  was  following  them  was  hard  to  say.  A 
woman  standing  near  them  also  received  a  brief  un- 
noticed look  from  Riel.  He  was  apparently  taking  no 
chances  of  being  followed.  A  train  pulled  in  and  the 
mass  of  humanity  started  toward  the  entrance.  Man- 
aging to  squeeze  into  the  train,  the  two  men  were 
obliged  to  stand  in  the  aisle.  The  man  with  the  dinner 
bucket  was  near  them,  but  Riel  paid  little  attention  to 
him ;  he  apparently  had  satisfied  himself  with  the  second 
glance  on  the  platform. 

"Is  this  the  kind  of  transportation  you  use  in  your 
travels  about  the  city?"  Wallace  asked,  nodding  to  the 
car  packed  tight  with  its  human  cargo. 

"No,  not  as  a  rule,"  was  the  answer.  "I  must 
apologize  for  bringing  you  on  this  crowded  car,  but  I 
did  it  to  prevent  being  followed.  We  can  lose  a  spotter 
easier  in  a  crowd  than  by  using  street  or  air  taxis 
which  can  be  followed  easily.  I  can't  afford  to  have 
anyone  follow  us  *>-night,  for  I  am  taking  you  to 
where  I  have  the  plans  that  our  criminal  wizard  is 
after,  and  I  can  not  take  a  chance  on  being  trailed 
there.  Those  papers  are  important." 

Leaving  the  subway  after  a  twenty-minute  ride,  the 
men  walked  along  the  lower  street  level  to  the  Empire 
Building,  taking  an  elevator  to  the  forty-seventh  floor 
where  the  offices  of  the  London  I.  A.  L.  branch  was 
located. 

"It  is  best  that  I  do  the  talking,"  Riel  warned  his 
companion  as  they  entered  the  manager's  office.  "I 
will  explain  later." 

The  detective  needed  no  introduction  to  Edward 
Graham,  manager  of  the  London  offices,  for  he  had  had 
interviews  with  the  official  before,  during  his  work  on 
the  present  case.  So,  witfc  little  more  than  a  nod  to 
the  man  at  the  desk,  he  at  once  approached  the  subject 
of  interest. 

"I  want  to  take  a  special  liner  back  to  New  York 
to-morrow  at  ten  in  the  morning.  I  will  put  on  a 
disguise  and  slip  onto  the  liner  in  the  sheds,  and  take 
my  place  in  the  control  room  as  an  electrical  tester.  If 
you  can  put  some  new  equipment  on  the  control  panels 
of  the  special,  it  will  look  more  natural." 

"I  think  I  can  arrange  it  all  right,  providing  Mr. 
Wallace  offers  no  objection." 

"No  objection  whatever,  Mr.  Graham.  You  are  to 
assist  Mr.  Riel  in  every  possible  way." 

"Well,  then,"  replied  the  manager,  turning  to  the 
sleuth,  "will  you  be  carrying  any  baggage?" 

"I  wish  to  get  a  package  of  valuable  papers  to  New 
York,  and  we'll  have  it  secreted  onto  the  liner  in  the 
sheds.  It  is  not  likely  we'll  be  stopped  this  trip,  for 
they  got  false  plans  from  us  before;  and  they'll  think 
this  trip  is  also  a  bluff.  Even  if  they  do  learn  of  the 
shipment  through  spies  watching  the  special,  they  will 
only  see  two  men  in  the  control  room  making  a  test 
flight." 

'    "AH  right  Mr.  Riel,"  replied  the  London  I.  A.  L. 


official,  "111  have  the  ship  ready  on  time.  I  suppose 
you  will  attend  to  putting  your  package  on  board?" 

"Yes,"  replied  the  detective,  preparing  to  leave,  "I'll 
attend  to  that." 

Leaving  the  office,  the  two  ascended  to  the  roof  and, 
signalling  for  an  air  taxi,  were  soon  traveling  to  the 
west. 

"Everything  worked  Wee  a  charm,"  Riel  exclaimed 
with  satisfaction  looking  at  his  watch  for  signs  of  the 
ray.  "Just  as  I  expected,  the  ray  was  on  us  all  the 
time  we  were  in  the  office,  and  our  master  criminal  will 
play  into  my  hands  this  time.  But  we  had  better  main- 
tain silence  until  we  are  more  secure  from  the  wizard, 
a  single  word  may  spoil  all." 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  Wallace  could  keep  quiet, 
for  he  was  bursting  with  curiosity.  A  score  of  ques- 
tions were  burning  in  his  brain.  Why  was  Riel  going 
to  return  to  America?  Did  he  really  hope  to  get 
across  with  some  valuables  to  see  if  it  could  be  done? 
No,  there  must  be  more  to  it  than  that.  No  doubt  he 
had  made  up  that  talk  because  the  ray  was  on  them, 
and  intended  to  make  a  far  different  move.  But  if  he 
was  intending  to  make  the  trip,  why  would  he  tempt 
the  criminals  to  another  robbery?  Could  he  learn  any- 
thing by  it?  Was  the  package  going  to  contain  any- 
thing of  real  value  or  would  it  be  another  fake  set  of 
papers?  Could  the  ray  penetrate  the  package  to  see 
what  was  in  it  and  so  possibly  beat  Riel  at  his  own 
trick? 

Over  London 

SUCH  thoughts  ran  through  the  American's  brain  as 
the  taxiplane  continued  west  along  the  city  landing 
level.  But  he  could  see  plainly  that  his  companion  did 
not  care  to  discuss  the  subject,  so  he  gave  it  up,  deciding 
to  wait  until  they  had  a  chance  to  talk. 

The  progress  of  the  taxi  was  slow  along  the  landing 
lane,  for  planes  were  continually  coming  up  or  going 
down  to  landing  places  below.  Building  roofs,  garage 
roofs,  individual  landings  and  the  many  municipal  park- 
ing spaces,  all  added  their  share  of  craft  to  the  crowded 
lower  lane.  But  it  was  not  long  before  the  chauffeur 
reached  an  ascent  cross-lane,  which  was  commonly 
called  the  "A"  lane.  The  "A"  lane  signal,  which  was 
a  huge  green  and  white  revolving  light  mounted  on  a 
steel  tower,  was  visible  for  a  long  distance  from  the 
air.  The  "D"  lane  or  descent  cross-lane  signals  were 
similar  to  the  others,  only  that  a  red  and  white  light 
was  used. 

The  taxiplane  arriving  over  the  "A"  lane  signal, 
ascended  to  its  proper  level,  passing  above  the  second 
lane  which  was  assigned  to  heavy  duty  craft.  Reach- 
ing Lane  3  which  was  composed  of  local  light  traffic 
it  again  resumed  its  flight  to  the  west.  Once  on  the 
third  lane,  the  plane  speeded  up  and  cut  through  the 
air  at  a  fast  rate. 

The  heavy  traffic  of  Lane  2  swept  past  below  in  a 
continuous  stream,  momentarily  blotting  out  partial 
views  of  the  illuminated  city  below.  As  far  as  the  eye 
could  detect  the  land  was  a  continuous  stretch  of  lights. 
Millions  of  them  of  all  imaginable  sizes  and  colors. 
The  extra  bright  strips,  stretching  for  miles  across  the 
black  background,  indicated  the  main  streets.  The  re- 
volving cross-lane  signals  could  be  seen  scattered  at 
intervals  over  the  city — the  traffic  signals  of  the  air 
traveler.  The  lanes  below  appeared  as  an  endless 
stream  of  red  lights,  as  the  heavy  traffic  of  the  lower 
lanes  swept  past,  the  red  lights  on  the  upper  side  of 
the  wings  standing  out  bright  and  clear  against  the 


168 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


darker  background  of  the  plane.  It  was  a  remarkable 
contrast  to  the  view  of  the  through  lane  above,  show- 
ing only  the  green  lights  of  the  lower  sides  of  the 
wings.  The  sky  was  cloudless  but  no  moon  was  visible 
to  flood  with  its  light  the  landscape.  But  a  plain  view 
of  the  land  below  was  not  essential  to  safe  air  travel, 
for  the  altitude  indicators  told  the  flier  what  lane  he 
was  in,  while  the  aerial  traffic  signals  which  were  to  be 
seen  everywhere  made  it  easy  to  find  one's  position. 
The  direction  signs  located  near  the  "A"  and  "D"  lane 
signals,  were  plainly  visible  from  the  highest  traffic 
lane  by  day,  and  well  illuminated  by  night. 

As  the  taxiplane  continued  to  the  west,  the  sea  of 
lights  in  the  city  below  gradually  thinned  out,  and  soon 
they  were  over  the  suburbs. 

"Better  drop  down  to  the  landing  level  at  the  next 
'D'  lane,"  Riel  informed  the  driver  through  the  taxi- 
phone. 

The  "D"  lane  signal  was  not  far  ahead,  and  they 
were  soon  down  on  the  landing  level  again.  Here  in 
the  suburbs  the  traffic  in  the  lower  lane  was  not  at  all 
congested,  and  the  taxi  proceeded  along  at  a  good  pace. 
They  had  not  gone  far  along  the  lower  lane  when 
the  detective  again  used  the  taxiphone. 

"A  half  mile  to  the  northeast;  three  white,  four 
green  and  red  in  the  square,  south  entrance,"  he  di- 
rected the  chauffeur. 

The  plane  was  slowed  down  as  it  approached  the 
sleuth's  landing  place  which  could  be  seen  plainly  as 
they  approached.  Three  white  lights  formed  a  small 
triangle,  surrounded  by  a  square  of  four  green  lights. 
This  was  the  exact  center  of  the  landing  space,  and 
the  four  red  lights  marked  the  four  corners  of  the 
area.  Approaching  from  the  south  the  plane  slipped 
to  the  ground  between  the  first  two  red  lights  and 
stopped  just  beyond  the  center  lights. 

"You  have  a  nice  location,"  Wallace  remarked,  step- 
ing  from  the  plane  and  looking  the  place  over.  "That 
is,  what  I  can  make  out  in  the  dark  looks  favorable. 
What  is  the  long  building  to  the  west  of  the  house?" 

"That  is  my  garage,"  the  host  explained.  "I  keep 
two  cars  and  a  plane  and  have  a  reserve  space  for  one 
of  each.  I  have  barely  enough  ground  to  provide  my- 
self with  air  landing  privileges.  It's  fortunate  that 
planes  can  descend  slower  and  stop  quicker  than  they 
used  to,  or  I'd  need  a  ten-acre  tract  for  my  landing. 
But  even  at  that  everyone  cannot  afford  an  individual 
landing.  Most  of  my  neighbors  use  community  fields. 
A  group  of  neighbors  maintain  one  landing  field  and 
air  shed,  which  serves  them  all.  It's  a  very  economical 
way  and  quite  efficient  too." 

The  conversation  was  here  interrupted  by  the  ap- 
proach of  a  policeman  from  the  shadows  of  the  house. 

"Any  orders,  sir?"  he  asked,  addressing  the  detective. 

"Yes,  Lester,  I  have  a  little  job  that  you  will  have 
to  do  carefully,"  Riel  instructed  the  man,  with  a  side 
glance  at  the  wrist  indicator.  "I  am  expecting  a  visitor 
soon,  and  I  want  youf  to  be  sure  to  get  him  for  it  is 
important  that  he  doesn't  get  away.  Is  Simpson  on 
the  job?" 

"Yes  sir,  he's  on  the  other  side  of  the  house." 

"Very  good,  then  both  of  you  keep  in  the  shadows 
until  you  spot  him." 

With  this  the  detective  approached  the  illuminated 
entrance  to  the  house.  Pausing  at  the  door  he  turned 
around  to  the  police  officer : 

"And  it's  equally  important  that  the  ray  doesn't  catch 
you  in  the  act,  understand  Lester?" 

"Yes  sir,  the  job  will  be  done  quickly." 


"Since  I've  been  on  this  case,"  the  Englishman  ex- 
plained to  his  companion  as  they  entered  the  hall,  "I've 
had  my  house  under  constant  guard  with  two  men  on 
each  shift,  for  I  can't  be  too  careful  when  dealing 
with  a  clever  crook  as  our  master  criminal  undoubt- 
edly is." 

Entering  a  large  room  off  the  hall,  he  invited  Wallace 
in,  explaining,  "This  is  my  combination  room;  part 
library,  part  laboratory  and  the  rest  designed  for 
comfort. 

CHAPTER  IV 
Riel's  Story 

THE  room  indeed  was  a  combination  room,  the 
American  thought,  as  he  looked  about.  The  thick 
carpets  and  easy  chairs  with  their  well-stocked 
smoking  stands,  gave  an  air  of  comfort  to  the  room. 
Along  the  wall  opposite,  from  the  hall  entrance,  stood 
a  well-filled  book-case,  and  to  the  left  at  the  far  end 
of  the  room  was  a  mass  of  electrical  equipment,  neatly 
mounted  on  mahogany-colored  panels,  forming  a 
switchboard  about  six  feet  high  and  eight  feet  long. 

"My  mechanical  assistant,"  smiled  the  host,  noticing 
his  guest's  interest  in  the  apparatus.  "Such  equipment 
is  necessary  to  fight  modern  crime-  The  scientific 
criminal  employs  all  possible  scientific  methods  to  ac- 
complish his  work;  and  to  fight  them,  the  law  must 
be  equipped  with  suitable  weapons.  My  secret  radio 
equipment  is  mounted  on  that  board  and  also  my  ray 
deflector." 

"Then  you  have  a  device  that  will  deflect  the  vision 
ray?" 

"This  house  is  surrounded  by  a  strong,  magnetic 
field,  which  deflects  the  vision  ray  and  prevents  it  from 
penetrating  the  walls  of  the  house.  Also  the  voice 
wave  detector  is  rendered  useless,  for  the  voice  pulsa- 
tions, when  picked  up,  are  carried  on  the  vision  beam 
in  some  manner,  so  inside  the  house  we  are  free  to 
talk  and  move  without  fear  of  detection.  I  have  a 
ray  detector  outside  the  house  at  a  safe  distance  from 
the  magnetic  field,  similar  to  the  wrist  watch  indicator. 
It  consists  of  two  large  coils  of  wire  with  a  sensitive 
magnetic  needle  balanced  between  them.  When  the 
ray  energizes  the  coils  and  swings  the  needle  out  of 
position,  a  meter  on  my  board  registers  it  and  a  red  _ 
light  at  the  top  of  the  center  panel  lights  up.  This  is 
arranged  so  that  I  will  know  when  he  has  the  ray  on 
my  house.  There  have  been  many  attempts  to  see 
through  my  walls  with  the  ray  for  I  have  papers  that 
the  man  is  after." 

Opening  a  wall  sate,  Riel  drew  out  a  bundle  of 
papers. 

"Here  is  the  only  existing  set  of  plans  of  the  Skubic 
Light  Wave  Receiver,  the  papers  that  I  am  sure  the 
criminal  is  after.  This  device  is  said  to  record  the 
oscillations  of  light  waves,  and  pulsations  of  a  certain 
nature  contained  in  these  waves  can  at  times  be  de- 
tected on  the  chart  or  recording  strip.  A  study  of 
these  markings  seems  to  have  proven  beyond  a  doubt 
that  some  one  of  intelligence  must  have  produced  them 
and  that  they  were  not  just  freaks  of  nature.  A  Ger- 
man produced  the  invention  in  America  and  wanted  to 
return  to  Europe  with  drawings  of  it.  But  fearing 
that  an  attempt  might  be  made  to  rob  him,  he  asked 
Scotland  Yard  for  protection  and  I  was  sent  over.  I 
was  working  on  your  case,  at  the  time,  trying  to  de- 
termine how  your  liners  were  brought  down.  I  had, 
by  then,  discovered  that  a  vision  ray  was  being  used, 
and  had  built  my  protecting  field  around  the  house,  also 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


169 


using  the  compass  attachment  on  my  wrist  watch. 

"Secretly  I  called  on  him,  carefully  disguised,  fear- 
ing the  criminal  might  be  after  the  plans  himself  and 
would  be  watching  the  inventor  closely  with  the  ray. 
In  that  I  was  right,  for  I  detected  the  ray  every  few 
minutes  while  I  was  there.  -  Taking  advantage  of  a 
moment  when  the  ray  was  off  I  slipped  his  plans  into 
my  brief  case  and  substituted  some  others  in  their  place. 
Then,  instructing  him  to  take  the  air  liner  to  London 
the  next  morning,  I  left  him,  and,  again  changing 
makeup,  left  New  York  the  same  evening  on  your 
eight-thirty  cruiser.  You  know  the  rest,  how  the  police 
plane  that  was  escorting  one  of  your  cruisers  was 
coaxed  away  from  the  ship  which  was  brought  down, 
and  only  the  papers  of  the  inventor  were  taken." 

"Then  why  did  he  jump  to  his  death  during  the  trip, 
if  he  knew  that  the  stolen  papers  were  worthless,  and 
that  you  still  had  his  genuine  ones  safe?" 

"He  didn't  jump  to  his  death,"  Riet  replied  quietly, 
"he  was  murdered." 

"What!"  The  eyes  of  the  air  line  official  opened 
with  amazement.  "Why  man,  there  were  at  least  a 
dozen  passengers  that  witnessed  the  act.  He  deliber- 
ately swung  his  window  down  and  jumped  out." 

"Listen,  Wallace,  I've  told  you  before  that  I  am 
sure  that  a  power  is  being  used  that  is  many  times  as 
deadly  as  the  vision  ray  and  the  voice  wave  detector 
combined.  It  is  this  power  that  brings  down  your 
liners,  the  reason  why  no  police  are  ever  on  the  job 
when  a  robbery  occurs,  the  same  reason  why  the  police 
escort  planes  leave  your  cruisers  just  before  they  are 
brought  down.  And  it  was  due  to  this  deadly  power 
that  the  inventor  was  made  to  leap  from  the  ship  into 
the  ocean  below.  He  was  murdered  by  the  wizard,  who 
thinking  that  he  had  the  only  copy  of  the  plans,  caused 
the  man's  death  to  prevent  him  from  drawing  a  dupli- 
catc  set.  With  the  death  of  the  inventor,  the  criminal 
would  be  in  possession  of  the  only  set  of  the  plans  on 
earth.  But  there  the  man  made  his  first  mistake  for 
the  papers  that  he  got  were  worthless,  and  the  inventor 
being  dead,  there  was  only  one  thing  that  he  could  do, 
and  that  was  to  obtain  the  only  set  that  was  in  ex- 
istence. Just  how  he  discovered  that  I  was  in  possession 
of  them,  I  don't  know.  But  knowing  that  I  was  track- 
ing him  down,  it  is  quite  natural  that  he  would 
suspect  me. 

'  The  theft  of  the  vision  ray  apparatus,  some  time 
ago  in  Paris,  the  invention  of  a  young  Frenchman,  was 
undoubtedly  the  work  of  this  man.  Probably  the 
possession  of  that  was  the  start  of  his  mad  career,  and 
he  has  improved  the  ray  and  used  it  along  with  some 
of  his  own  inventions,  such  as  the  sound  wave  detector, 
to  serve  him  in  his  lust  for  power.  With  it,  he  has 
probably  been  able  to  learn  many  of  the  world's  secrets, 
for  there  is  little  that  is  closed  to  him.  The  vision  ray 
inventor,  however,  was  able  to  make  a  duplicate  model 
of  his  device  which  is  used  universally  to-day,  but  as 
you  know,  it  only  has  a  range  of  about  fifty  miles.  So 
you  see  the  stolen  one  must  have  been  greatly  improved. 
The  one  our  criminal  uses  has  a  range  of  two  thou- 
sand miles." 

Riel  Explains 

""QUT  wj,y  jogs  ne  vaiue  this  light  wave  receiver 
MJ  so  high?  Of  what  use  would  it  be  to  him?"  - 
"It  is  believed  that  the  signals  detected  by  this  device 
are  coming  from  another  planet,  and  undoubtedly  he 
believes  that  possibly  he  could  learn  many  important 
secrets  with  it,  once  he  learned  to  decipher  the  mes- 


sages. It  would  be  dangerous  to  allow  the  plans  to  fall 
into  his  hands,  for  if  his  clever  brain  ever  did  unravel 
the  messages  that  the  device  received,  the  knowledge 
that  he  might  learn  would  be  of  great  assistance  to  him 
in  his  attempt  to  become  ruler  of  the  earth,  which  I 
believe  is  his  sole  aim. 

"But  to  get  back  to  the  subject  of  importance,  Wal- 
lace, I  will  need  your  help  to-morrow  in  making  a 
test." 

"I'll  do  anything  I  can,"  was  the  ready  reply. 

"Well,  then,  in  the  morning  we  will  both  put  on  dis- 
guises. I  must  hide  my  identity,  in  the  future,  to  hide 
myself  from  the  ray  so  I  can  work  in  secret.  Now 
you  are  the  one  that  will  return  to  New  York  on  the 
special  in  place  of  me.  I  will  tip  off  the  Yards  that 
it  is  I,  however.  This  is  to  be  positive  that  no  one 
knows  that  I  remain  here.  You  are  of  my  build  and 
will  pass  for  me  in  disguise.  I  will  give  you  my  iden- 
tification disc,  for  some  of  our  men  will  be  at  the  sheds 
to  see  that  no  one  else  gets  aboard.  When  you  get 
to  New  York  you  are  to  take  the  papers  that  you  will 
find  in  the  control  room  of  the  cruiser  and  place  them 
in  a  safety  vault  so  that  they  are  safe.  Then  keep  out 
of  sight  for  a  day  or  so  and  keep  away  from  your  old 
haunts.  Then  when  you  are  sure  that  the  ray  isn't 
following  you,  return  here  under  a  different  makeup. 
However,  do  not  come  up  to  this  house  unless  you  are 
sure  that  the  ray  is  not  watching  you  or  the  house. 
Your  return  must  be  made  secretly. 

"What  I  want  the  wizard  to  do  is  to  try  and  take  the 
papers  that  you  will  be  carrying.  I  am  sending  in  the 
package  a  complete  set  of  drawings  of  the  Light  Wave 
Receiver  with  the  exception  of  a  chemical  formula 
that  the  drawings  are  useless  without.  Some  of  the 
sheets  of  the  drawings  will  be  laid  out  on  the  desk  of 
my  assistant  at  headquarters  while  the  ray  is  on,  so 
that  the  wizard  can  see  for  himself  that  they  are  the 
real  ones.  He  will  no  doubt  keep  track  of  them,  until 
they  are  placed  in  the  control  room  of  the  cruiser  or 
given  to  you,  and  he  will  most  likely  try  to  bring  the 
cruiser  down  to  get  the  papers. 

"Now  here  is  where  you  come  in.  You  are  to  see 
that  he  does  not  bring  you  down,  that's  your  job, 
Wallace,  and  unless  I  am  wrong  you  have  a  big  job 
on  your  hands.  You  will  ride  in  the  control  room  be- 
side the  pilot,  who  will  obey  your  slightest  order  no 
matter  what  it  is.  The  reason  that  you  are  riding  as 
a  switchboard  tester  is  so  that  you  will  be  close  to  the 
operator  all  the  way  over,  and  can  prevent  any  attempt 
by  him  to  bring  the  liner  down.  When  you  step  on 
board  at  the  sheds,  make  up  your  mind  that  you  will  not 
allow  the  ship  to  leave  the  upper  beam  from  the  time 
you  start  until  you  arrive  over  New  York.  If,  in  spite 
of  all  you  can  do,  the  ship  is  brought  down  and  the 
plans  are  taken  away  from  you,  we  will  gain  more  than 
we  lose,  for  I  will  have  learned  something  of  great 
importance  and  he  will  have  gained  little." 

"You  can  depend  my  doing  my  best,  Riel,"  replied 
Wallace.  "But,  by  the  way,  who  was  the  visitor  you 
referred  to  when  talking  to  your  police  officer?" 

"We  were  trailed  on 'the  train  by  a  man  in  working 
clothes  carrying  a  lunch  bucket.  My  suspicions  were 
aroused  when  I  noticed  during  our  wait  for  the  train, 
that  he  handled  the  lunch  box  as  if  it  was  unnaturally 
heavy.  The  suspicions  were  confirmed  when  I  pur- 
posely brushed  against  it  in  the  crowd  and  felt  the 
weight  of  it.  Later  he  was  near  us  on  the  car,  reading 
a  paper,  and  all  the  way  out  to  where  we  got  off  the 
train,  I  noticed  that  he  gazed  at  the  same  corner  of  the 


It  was  a  long  spacious  room,  equipped  with  all  kinds  of  scientific  apparatus.  At  the  base 
of  the  center  panel,  a  man  was  kneeling.  His  hay  was  white  and  long,  and  a  black  skull- 
cap covered  the  top  of  his  head. 


170 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


171 


page,  which  was  not  likely  of  a  man  interested  in 
reading.  So  I  purposely  talked  of  the  drawings  here 
that  I  was  going  to  show  you,  expecting  that  he  would 
hear  us  and  follow  us  here.  As  an  agent  of  the  wizard, 
he  would,  no  doubt,  try  to  find  the  location  of  the 
papers,  the  one  thing  the  ray  hasn't  yet  been  able  to 
do.  Upon  our  arrival  at  the  office,  I  found  that  the 
ray  was  on  us,  and  I  planned  the  talk  of  shipping  some 
valuable  papers  across  the  ocean,  knowing  that  he 
would  suspect  me  of  trying  to  secret  the  coveted  plans 
across  and  hide  them  in  America.  When  we  left  in  the 
plane,  I  was  glad  to  see  that  the  ray  was  not  following 
us.  The  wizard  had  undoubtedly  thought  that  there 
was  little  that  we  would  do  but  plan  the  trip  for  to- 
morrow, so  he  let  us  go,  probably  fearing  possible 
detection  of  his  headquarters  by  too  much  use  of  his 
ray.  The  agent,  though,  will  probably  make  an  attempt 
to  learn  something  of  the  papers  and  follow  us  here.  If 
he  does  my  men  will  get  him.  I  want  to  get  him  out  of 
the  way  so  I'll  be  free  to  act  in  the  next  few  days." 

"Now  IH  call  my  assistant  at  the  central  office, 
so  he  can  have  his  part  of  the  job  ready,"  the  detective 
added  going,  over  to  a  desk  in  front  of  the  control 
board. 

"Is  there  no  danger  of  your  message  being  over- 
heard?" Wallace  asked. 

"Not  in  the  least,  for  first  my  wireless  system  breaks 
the  message  into  pieces  sending  it  out  on  three  differ- 
ent waves.  I  have  a  disk  that  is  rotated  by  a  motor 
mounted  on  the  rear  of  the  control  board.  This  disk, 
during  one  rotation,  makes  contact  with  three  different 
circuits  each  radiating  waves  of  a  different  frequency. 
Now  the  message  pulsations  pass  through  the  disk  and 
are  cut  up,  and  only  every  third  pulsation  is  thrown 
onto  any  one  circuit.  Then  it  is  easy  to  regulate  the 
speed  of  the  disk  so  that  it  will  break  up  the  message 
sufficiently  to  be  unintelligible  when  received  on  any  one 
wave.  Also,  to  make  the  message  extra  safe,  I  some- 
times use  coded  words  which  my  assistant  and  I  have 
arranged.  Further,  we  keep  the  combination  settings 
of  the  two  sets  a  secret,  for,  you  know,  he  must  set 
the  receiving  instrument  at  the  same  wave-lengths  as 
mine  and  must  also  set  the  speed  of  his  reassembling 
disk  motor  to  correspond  with  the  speed  of  mine  to 
assemble  the  messages  correctly." 

Final  Instructions 

SEATING  himself  at  the  desk  the  sleuth  lifted  his 
phone  and  pressed  a  button.  A  moment  later,  a 
small  white  light  lit  up  on  one  of  the  panels  and  Riel 
spoke  into  the  transmitter : 

"I  am  returning  to  New  York  on  a  special  I.  A.  L. 
at  ten  in  the  morning  in  disguise,  and  I  want  you  to 
let  the  ray  see  some  of  the  sheets  of  that  duplicate 
set  of  L.  W.  plans.  Be  sure  and  have  them  on  board 
the  cruiser  when  I  arrive.  I  will,  ride  in  the  control 
room  with  the  operator  who  must  be  instructed  to  obey 
my  every  order  during  the  trip  regardless  of  what  it 
is.  I  will  speak  to  no  one  at  the  sheds  but  will  have 
my  disc  for  identification.  The  ray  will  no  doubt  be 
on  you  in  the  morning  as  usual  to  look  over  the  papers 
on  your  desk  and  mine." 

As  he  shut  off  his  wireless  instrument,  two  police 
officers  entered  the  room  with  a  man  in  custody. 
Wallace  recognized  the  prisoner  as  the  man  that  he 
had  seen  on  the  train,  the  man  that  Riel  had  said  was 
an  agent  of  the  wizard.  One  of  the  officers  carried 
the  lunch  bucket  in  one  hand. 
"Good  work,"  congratulated  the  sleuth.   "Just  take 


him  below  for  the  time  being  but  leave  the  tin  bucket 
here." 

Placing  the  lunch  container  on  the  table,  the  two 
officers  left  the  room  with  their  prisoner. 

"I  am  glad  that  we  have  him  out  of  our  way,"  Riel 
remarked  as  he  walked  over  to  the  table,  "for  I  be- 
lieve he  is  the  only  agent  in  London.  Now  we'll  see 
what  is  in  the  bucket." 

Carefully  he  opened  the  lid,  and  at  the  sight  of  the 
contents  both  men  drew  closer  to  it.  The  box  con- 
tained a  sort  of  radio  device  neatly  packed  in  place. 

"That  is  what  I  expected,"  Riel  mused  as  he  ex- 
amined the  outfit.  "But  how — oh!  here  we  are,  two 
wires  come  up  to  the  handle  and  connect  to  a  vibrator 
bar  under  the  handle.  You  see  Wallace,"  he  continued 
turning  to  his  guest,  "how  he  was  able  to  overhear 
conversation  that  was  too  low  for  his  ears  to  detect. 
This  device  detects  the  sound  waves,  changes  them  to 
electrical  pulsations,  amplifies  them  up  and  through 
the  wires  to  the  handle  over  the  vibrator  bar.  By 
holdings  his  fingers  against  the  bar,  our  eaves- 
dropper received  the  vibrations  which  affected  his 
senses  as  well  as  sound  waves  striking  his  ear  drums. 
No  doubt  when  we  take  time  to  examine  this  device, 
we  will  find  that  it  contains  a  means  for  adjustment 
to  different  frequencies  of  sound  waves,  so  that  the 
conversation  of  one  person  can  be  picked  out  from 
among  a  crowd." 

"I  would  suggest  questioning  the  prisoner,"  Wallace 
replied.  "We  can  probably  get  some  important  in- 
formation from  him." 

"He  probably  knows  nothing,"  Riel  answered.  "I 
expect  he  is  under  the  influence  of  the  master  crim- 
inal, and  probably  does  not  know  that  the  wizard  even 
exists." 

"Then  if  our  clever  foe  can  press  any  one  into  his 
service,  he  will  soon  have  another  man  on  the  job  to 
take  the  place  of  this  one." 

"He  will  when  he  is  sure  that  we  have  his  man.  But 
I  intend  to  give  our  wizard  other  things  to  attract  his 
attention  to-morrow;  and  he  will  likely  be  too  busy  to 
pay  much  attention  to  the,  man.  But  I  think  that  we 
should  have  some  lunch  and  get  some  sleep  for  we 
have  work  to  do  in  the  morning,  and  you  especially 
must  be  fully  rested  to  do  your  part  well." 

CHAPTER  V 
Against  Their  Will 

AT  about  ten-thirty  the  next  morning,  Wallace, 
disguised  as  Riel,  entered  the  air  sheds  of  the 
"I.  A.  L„  and  showing  the  doorkeeper  his  iden- 
tification disc,  was  quickly  escorted  to  the  special.  The 
pilot  was  at  his  post  all  ready  to  start. 

"We'll  leave  immediately,  Wallace  instructed  the 
operator,  as  soon  as  he  saw  that  the  package  was  on 
board,  "and  you  will  not  need  to  pass  through  the 
London  station.  Just  use  your  manual  controls  until 
you  reach  the  upper  beam." 

The  motors  were  soon  humming  with  a  smooth  mu- 
sical note,  and  as  the  huge  doors  of  the  sheds  rolled 
open,  the  special  started  forward  and  was  soon  speed- 
ing down  the  field.  Wallace  was  climbing  into  a  suit 
of  overalls  as  the  liner  took  the  air.  The  pilot  drew 
in  the  landing  gear,  and,  having  nothing  more  to  do, 
sat  down  beside  the  operator.  The  steady  climb  soon 
brought  them  to  the  upper  beam,  and  as  the  cruiser 
righted  herself,  the  battery  of  motors  began  to  hurl 
her  forward  with  increasing  speed.    The  sky  was 


172 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


cloudy  over  the  British  coast,  and  at  times  nothing 
could  be  seen  but  heavy  banks  of  clouds.  But  the  craft 
kept  to  the  beam  and  was  allowed  to  continue  its 
terrific  speed,  tearing  blindly  along  through  rolling 
banks  of  fog. 

"There  may  be  a  chance  of  getting  through  this  trip 
if  the  fog  sticks  with  us  until  we  get  a  good  start," 
Wallace  remarked. 

"I  doubt  it  sir,"  replied  the  operator.  "I've  been 
forced  down  twice  and  there's  something  uncanny  about 
it.  When  they  want  the  ship  to  drop,  it  drops;  and, 
somehow  or  other,  a  fellow  can't  prevent  it." 

"I'm  positive,"  said  Wallace,  "that  they  are  using  a 
cross-beam  similar  to  our  landing  cross-beam.  This 
would  start  the  ship  downward,  but  at  any  rate  we 
will  make  damn  sure  that  no  one  brings  us  down  this 
trip,  for  if  our  automatic  controls  fail  us  we  will  use 
the  manual  levers." 

As  they  sped  along,  the  atmosphere  cleared  up  for 
about  a  half  hour,  then  they  ran  into  an  even  foggier 
area,  and  the  heavy  rolling  fog-banks  were  sent  flying 
past  the  speeding  craft  on  both  sides. 

"I  should  think  we'd  enjoy  the  trip  better  if  we 
were  to  drop  down  a  little  out  of  this  clouded  area," 
suggested  Wallace. 

His  pilot  was  evidently  thinking  the  same  thing,  for 
he  asked :  "Shall  we  leave  the  beam  and  drop  down  a 
little?" 

The  official  readily  consented,  and  the  pilot  using 
the  manual  controls  dropped  down  out  of  the  beam. 
They  had  not  traveled  far  before  they  were  below  the 
clouds  with  the  sea  far  below  in  plain  view;  still  the 
cruiser  dropped,  steadily  losing  altitude  as  it  continued 
to  the  west.  The  two  men  had  apparently  forgot 
about  the  clouds,  for  they  were  allowing  the  craft  to 
steadily  drop  without  interruption.  They  were  now 
only  a  thousand  feet  above  the  ocean  but  still  they 
continued  down,  to  every  thousand  feet  that  they  trav- 
eled west  they  dropped  a  hundred,  until  the  ship  hit 
the  crest  of  a  wave ;  flew  on,  hit  the  water  again  and 
settled  down  onto  the  ocean  like  a  monstrous  sea  gull. 

The  pilot  half  absent-mindedly  stopped  the  ship,  and 
turned  to  Wallace :  "You  are  supposed  to  be  posing  as 
a  control  tester,  Mr.  Rid,  so  here  is  a  good  cliance  to 
find  out  what  is  the  matter  with  the  ship." 

Wallace  realized  that  he  was  on  board  for  that  pur- 
pose, and  turning  to  the  mass  of  controls  on  the  dif- 
ferent panels,  decided  that  he  might  as  well  look  them 
over  and  see  what  he  could  find  out  about  them. 

Neither  of  the  two  men  noticed  a  third  enter  the 
room  and  stand  looking  at  them  with  a  quiet  smile  on 
his  face.  He  was  the  same  person  that  had  taken  the 
papers  from  Riel  on  the  former  trip. 

Suddenly  Wallace's  head  cleared  and  he  took  in  the 
situation.  He  could  not  recollect  how  the  ship  had 
been  brought  down,  or  why  he  should  find  himself 
crawling  among  the  wiring  behind  the  control  panels. 
But  things  were  now  clear  to  him.  and  he  watched  the 
calm  figure  of  the  intruder,  waiting  to  see  what  his 
next  move  would  be.  The  pilot  was  none  the  less 
puzzled,  and  he  vainly  tried  to  grasp  the  situation. 
Here  he  was  again  floating  on  the  surface  of  the  sea, 
after  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that  he  was  going  to 
get  through  on  this  trip  at  all  costs. 

"Well  Riel,"  the  bandit  addressed  Wallace,  "you 
will  come  along  with  me,  the  boss  wants  to  ask  you  a 
few  questions  and  it  will  be  useless  for  you  to  resist, 
because  you  can  do  nothing." 


"I'm  not  Riel,  I'm—" 

"We  know  who  you  are.  The  boss  knows  more 
about  your  business  than  you  do,  so  come  along." 

There  was  nothing  else  to  do  so,  instructing  the 
pilot  to  return  to  London,  he  walked  out  of  the  control 
room  with  the  bandit  following.  Entering  the  baggage 
room,  he  detected,  through  the  left  door,  which  was 
open,  the  little  white  plane  which  had  so  successfully 
eluded  all  police  planes.  In  the  cabin,  he  was  forced 
to  swallow  a  small  tablet  which  the  captor  handed  him, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  was  lost  in  sleep. 

Meeting  the  Wizard 

WHEN  Wallace  opened  his  eyes,  he  was  lying  on 
a  bed  in  a  small  room.  Rising  to  a  sitting  posi- 
tion he  pondered  over  the  situation.  His  brain  was 
slow  in  clearing  up,  due  to  the  effects  of  the  sleeping 
tablet,  but  it  was  not  long  before  he  remembered  every- 
thing. He  had  been  kidnapped  as  Riel.  Apparently 
the  criminal  leader  desired  to  get  the  sleuth  into  his 
power,  and  hearing  the  talk  in  the  offices  of  the  I.  A.  L. 
had  stopped  the  liner  to  get  Riel,  and  had  got  him 
instead.  Wallace,  seeing  that  his  disguise  was  not  dis- 
turbed, walked  quietly  to  the  door,  opening  it  softly. 

The  door  opened  up  into  the  side  and  near  the  end 
of  a  large  room:  It  was  a  long  spacious  room,  fully 
equipped  with  all  types  of  scientific  apparatus.  Along 
the  wall  opposite  to  his  door  ran  a  bench  about  two- 
thirds  of  the  room  in  length  or  approximately  twenty- 
five  feet  long.  This  was  fully  equipped  with  a  com- 
plete outlay  of  chemical  experimental  and  testing  equip- 
ment. The  rest  of  the  room  was  filled  with  the  great- 
est display  of  electrical  equipment  that  he  had  ever 
laid  eyes  on.  Stepping  into  the  room  he  found  that 
along  the  wall,  near  which  he  was  standing,  was  a 
second  bench  running  about  the  same  distance  down 
the  room  as  the  other.  Tin's  was  constructed  of  grey 
slate,  and  covered  with  all  sorts  of  electrical  instru- 
ments and  parts,  wires  and  partly-assembled  devices, 
many  of  which  he  had  never  seen  before.  Much  of 
the  material  was  connected  by  loose  wiring — probably 
for  testing.  Above  the  bench  mounted  on  the  wall  were 
a  row  of  marble  panels  extending  the  length  of  the 
bench,  and  fastened  so  that  any  one  panel  could  be 
taken  down  with  little  trouble.  The  different  panels 
were  electrically  connected  together  by  a  type  of  spring 
switch  that  could  be  disconnected  by  a  mere  touch  of 
the  hand.  The  mass  of  equipment  on  these  panels  was 
too  complicated  and  too  unfamiliar  for  him  to  even 
make  a  guess  as  to  their  use.  At  the  far  end  of  the 
room,  about  six  feet  beyond  the  end  of  the  work 
benches,  was  a  massive  instrument-board  reaching  from 
the  floor  to  about  eight  feet  in  height  and  about  two- 
thirds  the  room  in  width  or  approximately  twenty  feet. 
Every  panel  on  the  board  was  literally  covered  with 
dials,  meters,  coils  and  other  controls.  In  the  center 
of  the  room  was  a  long  table  with  chairs  around  it 
Many  instruments,  push-buttons,  meters  and  such  were 
sunk  into  the  polished  top  of  the  table,  leaving  the 
surface  unobstructed.  And  in  front  of  each  chair 
around  the  table  were  squares  of  frosted  glass  about 
six  inches  square  and  supported  vertically  by  an  ad- 
justable bracket,  so  that  it  could  be  tilted  into  different 
positions  similar  to  a  mirror  on  a  dresser.  Frank 
judged  that  the  heavy  ornamental  table  legs  must  be 
hollow  and  carried  all  the  wiring  from  the  table  con- 
trols and  instruments,  for  he  could  see  no  other  outlet. 
In  fact,  if  he  was  not  somewhat  familiar  with  such 
work,  he  would  have  doubted  that  there  were  any 


THE  PLANET'! 

wires  around  the  table,  for  not  an  inch  of  wiring  could 
be  seen. 

Then  Riel  was  right,  he  thought,  this  must  be  the 
work  room  of  a  clever  scientist,  who  was  using  this 
electrical  equipment  to  control  the  world  with.  A 
sound  from  the  direction  of  the  switchboard  attracted 
his  attention,  and  looking  in  that  direction  he  noticed, 
for  the  first  time,  a  man  kneeling  at  the  base  of  the 
center  panel.  His  hair  was  white  and  long,  but  his 
slightly  wrinkled  face  was  clean  shaven.  His  bent 
shoulders  indicated  that  the  work  of  continually  bend- 
ing over  instruments  and  drawings  was  beginning  to 
tell  on  him.  A  small  black  skull-cap  covered  the  top 
of  his  head  and  a  cord  running  down  from  it  was  con- 
nected to  the  panel.  He  was  apparently  busy  testing 
something  out  for  he  had  not  as  yet  noticed  Wallace. 

"This  must  be  the  wizard,"  thought  Frank,  as  he 
silently  watched  his  captor.  "As  far  as  I  can  see  from 
a  side  view  he  doesn't  seem  to  be  the  devil  that  I  ex- 
pected to  meet,  but  you  can't  always  tell  a  man  by 
his  looks." 

His  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  the  other  rising 
and  removing  his  cap.  "You  are  right,"  he  spoke, 
ruining  and  advancing  toward  his  visitor  with  a  quiet 
but  baffling  smile,  "you  can't  tell  a  man  by  his  looks. 
My  advice  is  to  make  sure  of  him  by  testing  hiin.  Out." 

Wallace's  mouth  opened  in  amazement  as  his  host 
continued:  "You  seem  surprised,  Mr.  Wallace,  that  I 
can  read  your  thoughts.  I,  in  turn,  am  surprised  that 
a  simple  demonstration  of  mental  telepathy  should  so 
astonish  you." 

"Mental  telepathy  ?  Such  a  thing  is  impossible.  You 
no  doubt  knew  what  was  on  my  mind  by  reading  my 
face." 

"Then  you  don't  believe  it  is  possible  to  read  an- 
other man's  thoughts." 

"Of  course  not.  It  has  been  tried  often,  but  has 
never  been  done  and  never  will.  Such  a  thing  is 
impossible." 

"In  a  few  minutes  I  will  endeavor  to  change  your 
mind  on  the  subject.  But  first  allow  me  to  introduce 
myself  as  J.  B.  Jolsen.  You  may  as  well  make  your- 
self comfortable,  for  your  visit  will  likely  be  a  long 
one.  You  may  also  take  off  your  disguise,  for  I  am 
sure  that  you  will  be  more  comfortable  without  it.  It 
was  very  clever  of  Riel  to  substitute  you  in  his  place, 
and  also  very  careless  of  me  not  to  have  noticed  my  mis- 
take before  I  brought  you  here.  But  any  way,  I  may 
find  a  use  for  you  later  on.  But  to  return  to  the  sub- 
ject of  mental  telepathy.  You  are  like  the  average 
man,  you  must  see  a  thing  done  or  else  you  brand  it 
as  impossible." 

The  Wizard's  Power 

'T^HE  wizard  seemed  to  be  in  his  favorite  role  when 
X  lecturing  on  science,  and  Frank  was  willing  to  hear 
him, 

"I  have  worked  a  long  time  on  the  theory  that  the 
human  brain  radiates  vibrations  or  waves  which,  by 
using  a  suitable  system,  could  be  detected." 

"You  mean  you  can  turn  a  man's  thoughts  info 
speech,"  gasped  Wallace. 

"Exactly,  and  while  working  on  a  ray  by  which  I 
could  collect  and  carry  the  thought  waves  to  my  ampli- 
fying and  transforming  device,  I  accidentally  found  a 
way  to  improve  the  vision  ray  that  I  am  now  using, 
greatly  increasing  its  range.  Having  developed  the 
vision  ray,  I  used  it  in  my  further  experiments  to  pro- 
duce the  telepathy  ray.  And  it  is  well  that  I  did,  for 


AIR  MASTER  173 

after  producing  a  high  frequency  wave  that  would 
carry  along  the  vision  ray,  I  knew  that  I  had  dis- 
covered it" 

His  prisoner  was  silent,  he  could  see  the  logic  of  the 
man's  words.  He  knew  now  what  Riel  meant  by  an- 
other power.  He  recollected  how  it  was  used  on  them 
to  reveal  the  hiding  place  of  the  papers  during  the  rob- 
bery of  the  liner  which  he  and  Riel  were  taking  to 
London,  also  the  reason  why  he  and  the  pilot  had  been 
so  willing  to  bring  the  ship  down  on  the  last  trip.  The 
wizard  was  indeed  entitled  to  the  name  of  Master  of 
the  Earth. 

"For  two  persons  to  exchange  thoughts,"  his  host  con- 
tinued, "it  is  necessary  that  their  brains  be  of  like 
character,  for  the  human  brain  is  similar  to  the  wire- 
less instruments.  When  one  wireless  set  sends  a 
message  into  space,  the  set  that  receives  the  message 
must  be  adjusted  to  a  wave  length;  that  is,  the  circuit 
that  receives  the  message  must  be  adjusted  so  that  it 
will  be  most  sensitive  to  the  frequency  of  the  waves 
that  are  carrying  the  message.  The  human  brain  works 
on  the  same  principle  in  respect  to  telepathy.  Two 
persons  having  brains  whose  characteristics  are  sim- 
ilar, will  be  more  successful  at  mental  telepathy  than 
others.  But  mental  telepathy  will  never  be  a  success 
because  the  thought  waves  that  a  man  tries  to  receive 
from  another  are  so  feeble  that  his  own  thoughts 
drown  them  out,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  free  the 
brain  from  one's  own  thoughts  sufficiently  to  make  it 
sensitive  enough  to  receive  the  thought  waves  of  an- 
other. So  you  can  easily  see  that  there  is  but  one 
thing  to  do  and  that  is  to  build  up  the  thought  waves 
until  they  are  strong  enough  to  be  detected  by  the 
other  brain.  In  fact,  if  you  build  them  up  strong 
enough  and  pass  them  through  another  man's  head, 
they  will  take  possession  and  control  of  his  brain  by 
being  more  powerful  than  his  own  thoughts." 

"You  mean  that  you  can  force  one  man  to  think  the 
thoughts  of  another?" 

"Exactly,  I  will  prove  it." 

As  he  spoke,  the  wizard  turned  to  the  electrically 
equipped  bench  and  commenced  to  adjust  a  number 
of  controls  on  some  of  the  panels  mounted  on  the  wall, 
while  Wallace  watched  him  wondering  what  was  about 
to  happen  next. 

But  in  a  moment  he  forgot  about  the  present,  he 
thought  about  the  events  of  the  trip  from  London.  He 
remembered  the  trip  through  the  endless  banks  of 
clouds  and  he  wondered  if  after  all  it  wasn't  better  to 
leave  the  beam  and  travel  below  the  clouds  in  such 
cases. 

His  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  the  scientist  say- 
ing: "Well,  is  that  proof  enough? 

"I  wasn't  noticing  you,"  admitted  the  other,  "I  was 
thinking  of — " 

"You  were  thinking  the  same  thoughts  that  occupied 
your  mind  before  you  brought  the  liner  down  yester- 
day. Or,  I  might  say,  the  thoughts  that  I  put  into 
your  head  to  make  you  bring  it  down,  I  used  again, 
just  now,  to  prove  my  power  over  the  rest  of  mankind. 

"I  can  read  any  man's  thoughts  and  learn  all  his 
secrets.  I  can  put  his  thoughts  into  another  man's 
brain  and  not  only  cause  one  man  to  talk  another's 
thoughts,  but  as  the  brain  controls  the  body  I  can 
make  him  do  what  I  wish:  I  can  make  him  hate,  love, 
steal,  murder  or  whatever  I  wish  him  to  do.  By  con- 
trol of  man's  brain  I  am  master  of  this  planet.  All 
men  are  my  servants." 

Frank  was  utterly  dumbfounded.  But  gradually  the 


174 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


full  horror  of  it  came  to  him.  To  think  that  man  was 
no  longer  master  of  his  own  brain,  no  longer  able  to 
say  what  he  wanted,  or  remain  quiet  when  he  wanted 
to.  He  realized  the  havoc  and  madness  the  telepathy 
could  create  in  the  world.  People  were  no  longer  free 
to  think  without  this  man  knowing  all  about  it.  Hu- 
man beings  would  live  in  a  nightmare  afraid  to  think 
for  fear  of  others  hearing  them.  Even  in  the  secrecy 
of  their  own  homes  the  world  would  know  every 
thought  flashed  through  their  minds.  He  remembered 
how  he  had  imagined  the  panic  that  the  wizard's  vision 
ray  would  cause  if  the  public  ever  knew  of  its  existence 
and  use.  But  there  was  a  protection  against  the  vision 
ray,  as  Riel  had  proved.  A  person  had  merely  to  pro- 
duce a  magnetic  field  of  sufficient  strength  to  ward  it 
off.  One's  home  could  then  be  screened  off  from  it 
and  one's  secrets  guarded. 

Wallace  closed  his  eyes  and  then  more  clearly 
realized  the  devilish  effects  of  this  thing.  The  vision 
ray  would  at  least  allow  you  to  think  in  secret.  But 
now  even  when  one  was  thinking  how  was  one  to  know 
whether  the  thoughts  were  one's  own  or  those  of  some 
one  else.  How  could  one  tell,  when  he  talked,  whether 
he  was  speaking  thoughts  of  his  own  or  those  of  some 
other  person.  It  was  madness.  It  was  hellish.  A 
person  was  far  better  off  dead. 

What  die  Wizard  Revealed 

AS  these  thoughts  ran  madly  through  Frank's  brain, 
he  had  forgotten  about  the  scientist  who  was  stand- 
ing near  him  with  an  amused  smile  on  his  face. 

"And  you  intend  to  use  these  devilish  instruments 
against  mankind  to  satisfy  your  greed  for  power?" 
Wallace  demanded  finally. 

"I  will  use  it  against  any  one  who  stands  between 
me  and  my  goal,"  was  the  cool  reply.  "I  will,  if  neces- 
sary, turn  one-half  of  the  world  against  the  other  half 
in  a  war  that  will  completely  wreck  your  civilization." 

"You  can  accomplish  nothing  by  that,  for  your  own 
existence  is  dependent  upon  civilization." 
The  scientist  shook  his  head. 
"During  the  excitement  of  war,  it  will  be  easy  for 
me  to  obtain  certain  papers  that  your  friend  Riel  has  in 
his  possession.  In  fact,  when  the  world  powers  see 
that  I  am  able  to  fulfill  my  threats,  there  will  be  no 
delay  in  getting  the  papers  for  me.  I  was  about  to 
send  word  to  your  detective  friend  telling  him  when 
to  send  me  the  drawings,  when  you  entered.  Now,  if 
you  will  excuse  me,  I  will  carry  out  my  task  and,  inas- 
much as  Riel  uses  a  triple-circuit  wireless  in  his  office, 
we  will  send  him  a  message  through  it.  I  built  a 
duplicate  of  his  set'  for  this  reason.  I  had  little  diffi- 
culty getting  the  plans  from  Dr.  Forest  who  invented 
the  system.  First,  we  will  put  the  vision  ray  on  his 
office  and  see  if  anyone  is  there.  We  must  read  the 
dial  setting  of  his  instruments.  Now  if  you  will  take 
a  seat  here  at  the  table  I  will  show  you  the  power  that 
I  have  in  the  vision  ray  alone." 

Going  over  to  the  experimental  work  bench,  he  re- 
turned with  two  head-riggings  and  handed  one  to  Wal- 
lace, showing  him  how  to  adjust  it  onto  his  head  and 
plug  the  projecting  cord  into  the  table.  The  head  gear 
consisted  of  a  leather  cap  that  fitted  closely  over  the  head 
and  containing  a  sort  of  felt  lining.  A  strap  ran  down 
each  side  of  the  face  from  this  cap  and  fastened  below 
the  chin;  ear  units,  covering  the  ears,  were  attached 
to  the  strap  also.  A  close-fitting  mouth  unit  and  a 
black  mask  stretched  across  the  eyes,  having  two  pale 


blue,  convex  glasses  to  see  through,  were  also  attached 
to  the  side  straps  of  the  head  gearing. 

Wallace  adjusted  his  mask  and  adjusted  the  square 
of  glass  on  the  table  until  be  could  see  it  best,  though 
at  best  he  could  see  little  through  the  blue  glasses. 

"When  you  want  to  talk,"  the  scientist's  voice  sounded 
in  his  ear  units,  "use  your  mouth  attachment,  and  turn 
dial  four  in  front  of  you.  This  gives  me  the  signal 
and  I  can  connect  .my  head  set  with  yours.  For  when 
we  are  not  talking  we  must  keep  our  ear  units  con- 
nected onto  the  voice  wave  amplifier  to  hear  the  sounds 
that  our  ray  receives." 

Wallace  was  mystified  at  the  pleasant  mood  of  his 
captor,  but  decided  to  accept  the  hospitality  and  learn 
all  he  could.  Then,  perhaps,  a  chance  would  come  in 
which  he  could  assist  his  friends  on  the  outside  to 
overpower  the  master  criminal. 

"This  small  wheel  here,"  continued  the  wizard, 
through  the  phone  circuits,  and  pointing  to  a  control 
in  front  of  him,  "controls  the  ray  pointer  which  is 
located  on  the  roof.  This  meter,  between  our  chairs, 
is  divisioned  off  and  marked  similar  to  a  compass. 
The  thin  black  pointer  which  is  pointing  N.N.E.  indi- 
cates the  direction  that  the  ray  pointer  is  turned  to. 
It  is  now  pointing  north  by  northeast  which  will  pass 
the  ray  through  London.  Now  watch  your  reflector 
plate  and  I  will  turn  on  the  ray." 

The  scientist  turned,  twisted  and  turned  a  number 
of  table  controls  and  presently  there  was  a  scraping 
sound  in  the  phones,  the  glass  plate  lit  up  in  a  momen- 
tary flash  and  was  dark  again.  Then,  again,  it  fluttered 
and  this  time  remained  dimly  illuminated.  The  upper 
part  of  the  glass  seemed  to  reflect  the  light  a  little 
brighter  than  the  lower  *half.  But,  again,  the  light 
shifted  and  the  blur  began  to  fade,  while  the  sound  of 
rushing  wind  could  be  heard  in  the  ear  units.  Gradu- 
ally the  scene  cleared  and  the  upper  or  brighter  half 
could  be  recognized  as  the  sky  and  the  lower  part  as 
water.  With  the  clearing  of  the  scene,  the  hearing 
device  cleared  up  too,  and  the  sound  of  the  wind  and 
the  occasional  breaking  of  a  wave  could  be  heard 
plainly.  Under  the  guidance  of  the  master's  fingers, 
the  scene  swept'  past  the  little  Teflector  plate  at  a  fast 
rate,  until  the  outline  of  the  British  coast  could  be  seen 
followed  quickly  by  the  waterfront  of  London.  Soon, 
towering  buildings  of  the  city  were  filling  the  scene. 
A  moment  later  a  single  building  had  been  singled  out 
by  the  nimble  fingers  of  the  wizard  and  was  quickly 
brought  to  a  close-up. 

A  Test  of  Power 

CLOSER  and  closer  the  building  approached,  and 
the  noises  of  the  city  increased  steadily.  Now  the 
scene  had  focussed  on  the  building  itself  until  only  one 
small  section  of  the  wall  was  filling  the  scene.  It  was  so 
close  that  the  bricks  could  be  counted  with  little  dif- 
ficulty. Another  change  began  to  take  place  and  the 
bricks  of  the  wall  gradually  faded  as  another  scene 
took  its  place.  As  it  cleared,  Wallace  gave  a  start ;  it 
was  the  office  of  Graham,  the  London  manager  of  the 
I.  A.  L. 

Graham  was  talking  to  a  man  that  Wallace  had  not 
seen  before. 

"But  if  Riel  was  the  only  one  that  went  on  the  liner, 
then  where  is  Mr.  Wallace,"  Graham's  voice  sounded 
in  their  ear  units.  "He  was  last  seen  in  company  with 
the  detective." 

"There  is  no  need  to  worry  about  Mr.  Wallace," 
assured  the  stranger.   "He  is  undoubtedly  safe,  but 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


173 


is  remaining  in  hiding  for  some  reason.  You  know  that 
only  Riel  was  on  the  liner  at  the  time  it  was  held  up, 
so  your  friend  is  undoubtedly  still  in  the  city." 

Suddenly  the  scene  went  dark  and,  looking  over 
at  his  host,  Wallace  saw  him  removing  his  head-set  and 
followed  suit, 
set  and  followed  suit 

"That  man  is  from  the  offices  of  Scotland  Yard. 
I've  had  reasons  to  trail  him  on  one  or  two  occasions 
before.  A  very  clever  man  but,  in  comparison  with 
my  brain  and  power,  he  is  but  a  school  boy.  I,  alone, 
of  all  human  beings,  am  entitled  to  the  word  clever, 
as  I  shall  presently  prove.  Once  I  have  the  plans  of 
the  Light  Wave  Receiver  in  my  hands,  I  will  be  ruler 
of  the  earth.  Your  friend  of  the  detective  force  shall 
bring  them  to  me  for  I  know  that  he  has  them." 

"Why  do  you  put  so  much  value  in  the  receiver? 
You  may  be  unable  to  decipher  the  code,  because  the 
language  is  unknown  to  us." 

"There  you  are  mistaken  again,"  his  host  corrected, 
"for  the  language  is  very  similar  to  French,  which  I 
can  read  and  speak  very  well." 

"You  are  only  guessing,  for  there  is  no  way  that 
we  can  find  out  the  language." 

"I  have  obtained  a  recorded  strip  of  pulsations  re- 
ceived by  this  device,  and  by  changing  the  pulsations 
into  electro-magnetic  impulses,  I  amplified  them.  Then 
changing  the  amplified  pulsations  into  sound  waves 
through  the  voice  producer,  I  recorded  the  sound  and 
have  it  to  study  at  my  leisure." 

"Then  you  have  been  able  to  read  the  message?" 

"Yes,  all  but  a  few  words  which  are  somewhat  con- 
fused. But  it  is  not  difficult  to  guess  the  meaning  of 
them.  Having  transformed  the  message  to  French,  I 
translated  it  then  into  English.  So  when  I  get  the 
Light  Wave  Receiver,  I  will  be  able  to  connect  up  my 
system  so  that  the  message  will  be  automatically  re- 
ceived, changed  to  electrical  impulses,  amplified  and 
recorded  in  French  which  is  the  language  that  is  being 
used.  By  means  of  the  device,  I  will  learn  many  of 
the  secrets  of  the  super-intelligent  planet  that  is  send- 
ing the  messages,  for  it  is  undoubtedly  the  work  of 
another  planet.  Finally,  by  adding  their  knowledge  to 
my  own,  I  may  not  only  be  ruler  of  the  earth,  but  the 
master  of  the  solar  system.  Only  the  possession  of 
the  plans  is  needed  for  accomplishing  my  purpose. 
But  I  will  get  them,  for  what  I  want,  I  have  the  power 
to  get.  I  will  sit  as  ruler  of  the  earth,  while  I  pre- 
pare for  my  conquest  of  the  solar  system." 

The  eyes  of  the  master  mind  shone  with  fierce  light 
as  he  warmed  up  to  his  talk. 

"We  will  now  get  the  combination  of  Riel's  Triple 
Wave  Wireless  Set,  so  that  I  can  send  him  the  message 
privately."  ^ 

Noticing  the  surprised  look  on  the  face  of  his  pris- 
oner, the  old  man  continued : 

"You  no  doubt  are  wondering  how  I  can  read  the 
dials  of  Riel's  wireless  set  which  is  protected  from  my 
ray  by  a  magnetic  field." 

"That  if  what  I  was  wondering  about." 

"Then  put  your  mask  on  again  and  I  will  show  you 
how  helpless  your  friend  is  against  me.  You  will  see 
how  utterly  useless  it  is  fo?  him  to  hold  out,  and 
especially  to  try  to  bring  about  my  downfall." 

The  ray  was  soon  on  again  and  with  little  trouble 
Jolsen  had  focussed  the  scene  on  the  headquarters  of 
Scotland  Yard.  A  moment  later  the  scene  was  ad- 
justed so  that  they  were  looking  into  a  single  room. 
The  details  of  the  room  stood  out  quite  plainly,  with 


the  exception  of  one  corner  thaf  produced  a  sort  of 
orange-colored  glow.  But  whether  it  was  the  fault 
of  the  vision  set  or  was  caused  by  a  bright  lamp  in  the 
corner  of  the  room,  Wallace  was  unable  to  tell.  There 
was  no  one  in  the  room  at  the  time,  but  the  desk  was 
littered  with  papers,  indicating  that  someone  had  been 
there  recently. 

"Do  you  notice  the  glowing  spot  in  the  corner?" 
Jolsen  asked  through  the  phone  circuit.  Then,  with- 
out waiting  for  a  reply,  continued,  "That  is  where  the 
Triple  Wave  Wireless  Receiver  is.  That  glow  is  caused 
by  the  magnetic  field  deflecting  my  ray.  It  is  a  good 
barrier  at  that  distance,  for  I  cannot  produce  suf- 
ficient pressure  to  break  it  down.  But  if  that  field 
was  within  two  hundred  miles  of  me,  it  would  be  use- 
less, for  I  could  break  through  it  with  ease.  Riel's 
other  protecting  field  also  would  be  of  no  use  to  him 
at  close  range.' 

"Then  your  attempt  to  read  the  combination  of  the 
triple  circuit  receiver  is  useless?"  Wallace  said  tri- 
umphantly. 

Ignoring  him,  the  old  man  shifted  the  ray  again,  and 
they  were  soon  looking  into  the  basement  of  the  build- 
ing, the  switchboard  that  controlled  the  lights  and 
power  of  the  building  appearing  before  their  eyes.  For 
a  moment,  the  wizard  surveyed  the  scene  and  again 
changed  the  ray,  shifting  it  around  the  room  until  he 
brought  it  to  rest  in  one  corner  where  a  workman  sat 
reading  a  paper. 

"This  man  is  the  maintenance  electrician  for  the 
building,"  hejnformed  his  guest.  "Now  you  are  about 
to  see  how  I  give  orders  to  the  world  and  how  quick 
and  faithful  it  does  my  bidding." 

A  few  more  buttons  and  dials  moved  beneath  the 
man's  fingers.  The  man  in  the  scene  looked  up  from 
his  paper  and  scratched  his  head  in  deep  thought  and 
finally  deciding  something  he  rose  and  approached  the 
switchboard.  Quickly  Jolsen  brought  the  board  up 
close  in  the  scene  as  the  man  stopped1  in  front  of  the 
panels,  and  looked  over  the  different  breakers!  and 
trips.  Again  the  fingers  of  Jolsen  moved  a  dial  and 
the  next  instant  the  man  in  the  scene  tripped  the  larg- 
est circuit-breaker  on  the  board.  Instantly  the  scene 
changed  and  that  of  the  office  was  seen  again,  the  glow 
in  the  corner  was  now  gone  and  the  cabinet  of  the 
wireless  set  could  be  seen  on  a  table,  and  a  device  that 
Wallace  judged  was  the  recording  device  was  resting 
on  the  receiver.  Another  moment  and  the  wizard  had 
a  close  view  of  the  set,  so  close  that  the  dials  could  be 
seen  and  the  settings  read  with  ease. 

It  was  but  a  few  seconds  until  the  old  man  had  copied 
the  dial  readings,  and  then  suddenly  the  glow  in  the 
corner  returned. 

CHAPTER  VI 
A  Message 

AFTER  shutting  off  the  ray,  Jolsen  removed  his 
mask  and  Wallace  did  likewise. 
'  "You  see  I  have  the  combination,"  remarked 
the  wizard,  with  a  smile,  "and  it  was  very  little  trouble." 
"You  used  your  telepathy  ray?"  asked  Wallace. 
"Yes,  you  see  the  power  that  is  used  to  produce  the 
field  around  the  wireless  set  is  taken  from  the  lighting 
circuits,  and  to  remove  the  field,  all  that  I  had  to  do 
was  to  turn  off  the  power.  That  I  did  by  putting 
thoughts  into  the  brain  of  the  electrician  to  that  effect. 
Controlled  by  the  thoughts  that  took  possession  of 
his  mind,  he  went  over  to  the  board  and  tripped  the 
main  breaker,  throwing  the  power  off  the  whole  build- 


176 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


ing.  This,  of  course,  removed  the  power  that  was 
supplying  the  magnetic  field,  and  the  result  was  that 
there  was  no  more  field.  Of  course,  as  soon  as  I 
removed  the  ray  from  the  man  in  the  basement,  he 
was  in  command  of  his  own  senses,  and  seeing  the 
breaker  was  out,  no  doubt  he  thought  that  it  tripped 
out  on  account  of  overload.  So  to  prevent  him  from 
throwing  it  back  in,  I  could  have  led  him  away  from 
the  place,  or  done  a  dozen  other  things  with  him  to 
keep  him  away  had  I  wished.  But  I  did  not  want  to 
leave  the  power  off  too  long,  for  it  would  lead  them  to 
investigate.  Riel,  hearing  of  it,  might  get  suspicious." 

"Then  you  are  going  to  send  the  message  to  his 
office?" 

"No,  to  his  home.  The  two  sets  will  be  adjusted  to 
the  same  setting  so  I  can  send  my  message  via  his 
office  set  to  his  home." 

"But  you  could  have  taken  the  reading  of  the  set  at 
his  house  as  well  as  at  his  office,"  Wallace  said,  puzzled. 

"No,  the  protecting  field  around  his  house  is  not  sup- 
plied from  the  power  lines  like  the  one  in  the  office. 
He  has,  no  doubt,  a  small  independent  generating  plant 
in  the  house,  and  as  it  is  inside  the  field,  I  cannot  find 
a  way  to  throw  the  power." 

"Then  your  telepathy  ray  is  of  no  use  outside  of  the 
vision  beam?" 

"No,  when  the  vision  beam  is  deflected,  the  telepathy 
ray  is  also  deflected,  for  it  is  carried  on  the  beam.  Now 
I  will  get  the  circuit  settings  changed  to  correspond 
with  those  of  Riel's  set.  You  may  stay  here  at  the  ray 
and  use  it,  and  if  you  would  like  to  change  the  adjust- 
ment, use  these  two  dials  here.  Oh,  there  is  no  chance 
of  you  learning  too  much,"  he  added,  noticing  the 
puzzled  look  on  the  other's  face.  "I  will  see  to  that. 
If  you  did  learn  some  of  my  most  important  secrets,  I 
would  have  no  cause  for  worry  because  it  is  impossible 
for  you  to  escape  from  here.  This  place  is  located  on 
an  uncharted  island." 

With  these  words,  he  disconnected  his  mask  from  the 
table  and  took  it  over  to  the  experimental  bench.  Wal- 
lace watched  the  wizard  adjust  some  of  the  controls 
and  automatic  contactors  on  the  wall  panels.  Then, 
donning  the  head  set  again,  Frank  pressed  the  vision 
ray  contactor  button.  The  reflector  screen  lighted  up 
at  the  touch,  and  the  office  scene  was  again  before  his 
eyes.  But  now  there  was  someone  at  the  desk.  He 
had  no  doubt  but  that  the  man  was  Riel's  assistant, 
and  wondered  if  he  was  aware  that  the  ray  was  on 
him.  A  closer  adjustment  of  the  scene  soon  satisfied 
him,  for  the  man  wore  a  wrist  watch,  and  Wallace 
noticed  him  look  at  it  occasionally.  Could  he  signal  the 
man  ?  The  thought  flashed  through  the  official's  brain. 
He  knew  the  international  wireless  code.  Perhaps  by 
shutting  off  the  ray  and  switching  it  on  at  long  and 
short  intervals,  the  detective  would  notice  it.  He  would 
try.  Nervously  his  fingers  pressed  the  ray  button  on 
and  off  as  he  spelled  the  word  "Riel"  twice,  then 
switching  on  the  ray,  he  watched  the  man  closely.  But 
the  fellow  did  not  seem  to  notice,  for  he  continued 
writing  at  his  desk  and  seemed  absorbed  in  his  work. 
A  moment  later,  however,  the  man  leaned  back  in  his 
chair,  and  looking  up  spoke: 

"All  right,  Wallace,  wish  we  could  help  you  but  don't 
lose  hope." 

His  heart  beat  faster  as  he  heard  the  words,  then  the 
man  had  read  the  message,  and  knew  that  he  was  a 
prisoner.  He  felt  greatly  relieved  that  Riel  would 
know  that  he  was  alive  and  in  the  laboratory  of  the 
wizard.  He  also  realized  that  Riel  would  perhaps  look 


for  help  from  him  in  case  they  attempted  to  attack 
the  place. 

There  was  a  tap  on  his  shoulder,  and  Wallace  re- 
moved his  head  set  to  see  his  host  standing  behind 
him. 

"The  detective  didn't  receive  your  signals  by  means 
of  the  wrist  watch,"  the  old  man  remarked,  with  an 
amused  smile  on  his  face.  "He  has  a  similar  indicator 
on  his  desk  that  he  can  watch.  But  I  shall  have  to  see 
that  you  send  no  more  signals,  or  keep  you  from  using 
the  ray." 

"Isn't  there  anything  I  can  do  without  you  knowing 
it?"  asked  the  disgusted  prisoner. 

"If  there  was,  you  might  do  me  harm.  As  it  is,  you 
are  harmless.  I  allowed  you  to  send  your  message  be- 
cause you  can  do  yourself  little  good,  or  me  little  harm. 
The  world  is  in  my  power,  and  your  feeble  rebellious 
attempts  will  not  help  you  any.  In  fact  they  might 
prove  advantageous  to  me,  for  by  reading  your  thoughts 
just  now,  I  found  that  your  friends  were  using  a  wrist 
watch  as  a  ray  indicator,  a  thing  I  did  not  know  before. 
But  I  am  ready  to  send  them  the  message.  Put  your 
mask  on  again  and  you  will  hear  it  as  it  is  being  sent. 
We  will  also  watch  the  set  at  the  office  to  be  sure  that 
it  records  correctly." 

A  Threat  Made  Good 

WITH  masks  adjusted,  a  few  controls  were  moved 
in  front  of  each  of  the  men  and  a  red  dial  care- 
fully turned.  A  scraping  sound  in  the  ear  pieces  gave 
way  to  words : 

"Detective  Riel  will  place  the  drawings  of  the  Skubic 
Light  Wave  Receiver  on  an  air  liner,  which  will  leave 
London  to-morrow  morning  at  9.30  for  New  York.  If 
he  fails  to  do  this,  I  will  create  a  reign  of  terror 
through  England,  that  in  horror,  will  be  beyond  imagina- 
tion. By  order  of :  The  Planet's  Air  Master." 

"The  message  is  now  recorded  on  his  oscillograph," 
the  wizard  informed  his  captive.  "Now  he  is  going  to 
switch  the  announcer  into  circuit.  Listen." 

A  moment  later  their  head  sets  were  connected  with 
the  sound  wave  panel  of  the  vision  ray  apparatus,  and 
the  detective  could  be  heard  adjusting  the  dials,  as  he 
stepped  to  the  set  to  see  what  message  had  come  in. 
As  he  did,  the  announcer  spoke  out  the  message  to  him. 
The  man  stood  before  it  a  moment  or  two  as  if  tem- 
porarily stunned,  a  deep  look  of  worry  came  over  his 
face,  then  slowly  shutting  off  the  set  he  returned  to 
the  desk. 

A  slight  disturbance  on  one  of  the  meters  caused  old 
Jolsen  to  leave  the  scene  of  the  office  and  throw  the 
ray  around  the  sky,  sweeping  back  and  forth,  and  at 
the  same  time  watching  the  meter.  In  a  few  moments 
he  had  the  beam  on  a  fleet  of  six  planes  that  were 
approaching. 

Wallace  also  saw  them  and  his  heart  gave  an  extra 
beat  as  he  realized  that  they  were  probably  following 
the  beam,  in  an  endavor  to  trace  it  to  its  source.  His 
hopes  rose  further  as  he  recognized  the  slightly  tapered 
wings  of  the  Burley  plane,  used  by  the  American  police. 
The  wizard  was  quietly  watching  them  as  he  kept  them 
in  the  ray. 

"This  is  my  opportunity  to  demonstrate  to  you  my 
powers,"  he  boasted  through  the  phone  circuits,  as  he 
began  to  adjust  some  more  controls,  and  draw  the  scene 
closer.  "I'll  show  you  the  powers  of  my  telepathy  ray, 
and  at  the  same  time  illustrate  what  happens  to  those 
who  meddle  into  my  affairs." 

He  busied  himself  on  a  few  more  dials,  while  Frank 


THE  PLANET' 

wondered  what  his  game  was,  thinking  that  the  wizard 
would  lead  them  off  the  trail. 

"Now  the  ray  is  on,  watch  the  greatest  demonstra- 
tion of  power  ever  seen  on  earth,"  the  cool  boastful 
voice  sounded  in  his  ears. 

Frank  needed  no  invitation  to  watch.  He  sat  tensed 
watching  to  see  the  effects  of  this  ray.  Suddenly  the 
fleet  of  planes  broke  formation  and  commenced  circling 
one  another  in  a  strange  and  disorderly  way. 

"Looks  like  111  have  to  strengthen  the  Tay,"  the 
wizard  was  saying.  "They  have  picked  men  with  very 
strong  will-power.  But  I'll  break  them  with  less  than 
a  kilowatt  increase." 

More  adjustments  were  made  with  some  of  the  many 
controls  under  his  hands,  as  Frank  glued  his  eyes  to 
the  scene.  Then  he  gave  a  quick  start  and  his  face 
paled.  The  planes  were  now  racing  around  each  other 
at  maximum  speed.  Then  he  heard  the  rat-tat-tat,  the 
unmistakable  sound  of  a  machine  gun  that  added  its 
noise  to  the  hum  of  the  motors.  There  could  be  no 
doubt  that  they  were  shooting  at  something.  Suddenly 
the  truth  of  the  situation  came  to  him,  and  a  chill  of 
horror  ran  through  his  body.  Under  the  power  of  the 
telepathy  ray  they  were  shooting  each  other  down  like 
mad-men.  Each  one  undoubtedly  saw  himself  sur- 
rounded by  a  flock  of  savage  beasts.  The  ray  was 
filling  their  brains  with  a  bestial  rage,  and  each  ship 
was  pouring  shells  and  gas  streams  into  the  rest  at  every 
opportunity. 

The  Terror 

THRIVEN  almost  insane  himself  by  the  slaughter 
JL/  before  his  eyes,  Frank  savagely  tore  the  rigging 
from  his  head.  He  would  smash  the  ray  control  panels 
or  die  in  the  attempt.  Seeing  the  other  was  still  wear- 
ing his  mask  and  watching  the  scene  closely,  Wallace 
glanced  over  at  the  main  control  switchboard,  on  which 
was  mounted  most  of  the  control  units  of  the  telepathy 
ray.  In  one  moment  he  could  rip  the  mess  of  fine 
wires  behind  the  panels  and  put  the  ray  out  of  com- 
mission, thus  saving  the  lives  of  the  men  who  were 
now  butchering  each  other.  Quickly,  but  quietly,  he 
rose  from  the  chair.  But  the  moment  he  left  the 
cushions,  se  seemed  seized  with  pain,  and  he  sank  back 
unable  to  move  a  limb.  Suddenly  as  the  cramp  seized 
him,  it  left  him  again. 

"I  was  expecting  you  to  do  something  contrary  to 
my  wishes."  The  wizard  had  removed  his  head  set 
and  was  regarding  his  companion  with  an  amused  ex- 
pression on  his  face.  "I  adjusted  the  paralyzer  ray  on 
you.  You  set  it  off,  when  you  attempted  to  leave  your 
chair.  But  come,  you  are  missing  a  fine  scene."  And 
donning  the  head  apparatus  again  the  scientist  was  soon 
gloating  over  the  scene  before  him  on  the  reflector 
plate.  Wallace,  realizing  the  uselessness  of  any  further 
attempt  to  destroy  the  ray,  put  on  his  own  head  set 
again. 

The  scene  that  met  his  eyes  was  horrible.  There 
were  now  only  five  ships  in  the  air,  and  there  were 
fighting  each  other  in  the  most  savage  and  desperate 
way  possible,  recklessly  spraying  streams  of  bullets 
around  and  about  them  and  using  the  deadly  gas  guns 
at  every  opportunity.  Suddenly  one  broke  out  in 
flames,  but  the  two  members  of  the  crew  stuck  to  their 
posts  and  the  blazing  craft  tore  through  the  group, 
firing  left  and  right  until  it  shot  down  like  a  flaming 
meteor,  disappearing  in  a  bank  of  steam  as  it  struck 
the  water.  The  scientist  adjusted  the  controls  until 
they  were  looking  into  the  interior  of  one  of  the  ships. 


AIR  MASTER  177 

The  man  at  the  gun  was  sending  streams  of  shells  at 
every  chance,  while  the  pilot  with  cruel  set  face,  sent 
the  ship  careening  around  the  battle  area.  The  loud 
roar  of  the  engines  and  guns  at  close  range  were  ring- 
ing in  their  ears  so  loudly  that  old  Jolsen  had  to  re- 
duce the  sound  with  the  volume  regulator.  One  plane, 
taking  a  wide  circle,  left  the  center  of  battle  and  in  a 
moment  the  wizard  had  the  center  of  the  ray  on  it. 
The  gunman  was  looking  around  desperately  for  a 
plane  to  shoot  at  Then,  turning  to  his  pilot,  he  paused 
a  moment  while  rage  and  hate  registered  on  his  face. 
Then,  with  a  savage  oath,  he  sprang  on  the  back  of 
his  companion.  Fighting  madly  like  beasts,  under  the 
influence  of  the  damnable  ray,  the  two  men  rolled, 
clawed,  and  scrambled  among  the  controls,  while  the 
unguided  craft  sped  to  its  doom.  A  few  moments 
later,  the  tortured  minds  of  the  two  men  were  calmed 
by  death,  as  the  sea  closed  over  them. 

Tearing  the  mask  from  his  head  again,  Wallace 
leaned  back  in  his  chair,  weak  and  pale. 

"Good  God,"  he  stammered  as  the  other  turned  to 
him,  "if  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  make  you  pay  for  this, 
youH  pay  dear.  You  must  have  the  soul  of  the  devil, 
for  no  human  could  slaughter  his  fellow  man  like  that." 

The  wizard  merely  smiled  the  same  cool,  maddening 
smile.  "What  you  have  seen  is  but  an  infinitesimal 
part  of  what  is  to  come,  if  this  world  forces  me  to 
declare  war  on  it." 

Frank  rose  wearily  from  his  chair.  He  was  sick, 
mentally  and  physically.  He  had  received  all  that  he 
could  stand  for  one  day,  he  wanted  to  rest  and  forget 
the  nightmare.  Entering  the  little  bed-room,  he  flung 
himself  down  on  the  bed  in  misery.  But  the  mental 
strain  was  too  much  for  him,  and  he  soon  fell  into  a 
deep  sleep. 

The  World  Obeys 

THE  sun  was  high  in  the  sky  when  he  awoke  the 
following  morning.  For  a  moment,  he  wondered 
where  he  was.  Then  the  events  of  the  previous  day 
returned  to  his  mind.  Remembering  the  threat  of  the 
wizard,  he  was  anxious  to  see  if  the  air  cruiser  would 
have  the  plans,  and  what  the  wizard  would  do  if  he 
failed  to  get  them.  He  had  slept  all  night  in  his 
clothes  and  wasted  no  time  in  stepping  out  into  the 
laboratory. 

"Good  morning.  I  hope  you  had  a  good  rest,"  was 
old  man  Jolsen's  greeting  from  the  table  where  he  was 
going  over  some  plans.  Frank  made  no  reply  and  the 
old  man,  pressing  a  button,  continued  his  work.  A 
door  at  the  end  of  the  room  on  Wallace's  right  opened 
and  a  butler  appeared. 

"Take  care  of  any  of  this  gentleman's  needs,"  the 
wizard  ordered. 

"This  way,  sir,"  the  butler  politely  requested  him, 
leading  the  way  out  through  the  door. 

Frank  noticed  that  the  bathroom  windows  were  not 
barred  or  protected  in  any  visible  way,  nor  those  in  the 
small,  luxuriously  furnished  dining  room.  But  he  had 
no  idea  of  attempting  to  escape.  He  had  no  doubt  but 
that  the  place  was  well  protected,  for  he  knew  that  a 
man  like  the  wizard  would  take  no  unnecessary  chances. 
He  also  realized  that  with  such  a  calamity  as  the  tele- 
pathy ray  threatening  the  world,  he  would  be  of  no  use 
on  the  outside,  while  he  might  be  able  to  accomplish 
something  from  within. 

The  breakfast  that  was  served  was  an  excellent  meal. 
It  was  evident  that  the  scientist  had  no  trouble  in 


178 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


obtaining  any  of  the  worWs  delicacies  when  he  needed 
them. 

When  he  returned  to  the  laboratory,  the  wizard  was 
at  the  table  using  the  vision  ray,  and  Frank,  not  caring 
to  miss  anything,  slipped  into  his  chair  and  donned 
his  head  set,  and  the  scene  that  met  his  eyes  he  quickly 
recognized  as  the  air  line  station  in  London. 

They  had  not  long  to  wait  until  a  westbound  cruiser 
glided  in,  stopping  to  receive  its  load  of  passengers  and 
baggage. 

The  wizard  swept  the  three  platforms  and  the  in- 
terior of  the  liner  with  the  ray,  watching  the  people 
closely.  But  he  seemed  to  detect  nothing  unusual,  noth- 
ing to  lead  him  to  think  that  the  detective  organization 
was  sending  the  plans  out  on  that  liner.  He  then  tried 
the  telepathy  ray  on  some  of  the  officials  and  the  liner 
crew,  but  no  thoughts  could  be  read  indicating  any 
knowledge  of  the  papers.  Frank,  connected  to  the 
transforming  unit  of  the  telepathy  detector,  conW  hear 
the  thought  message  as  well  as  his  host.  It  appeared 
as  if  the  police  were  intending  to  defy  him. 

Suddenly  the  wizard  straightened  up,  a  slight  hum 
could  be  heard  in  the  ear  units.  Tearing  his  head  set 
rigging  off,  he  leaped  across  to  the  automatic  wireless 
recorder,  and  switched  on  the  announcer.  There  was 
a  scraping  noise  and,  as  it  died  down,  a  man's  voice 
sounded  clear  and  distinct  in  the  instrument. 

"Light  Wave  plans  leaving  on  air  cruiser  49  S.  P." 

That  was  all,  the  instrument  became  silent 

"You  see  they  are  beginning  to  realize  the  power  I 
hold,"  exclaimed  the  master  criminal,  his  eyes  gleaming 
with  greedy  pleasure. 

Returning  to  the  vision  ray  apparatus,  he  swung  ife 
ray  to  the  sooth,  and  soon  had  it  adjusted  on  a  heavily 
wooded  island.  Frank,  gazing  through  his  mask,  was 
unable  to  determine  the  location  of  the  island,  but  he 
noticed  that  the  trees  appeared  to  resemble  those  seen 
in  the  tropical  regions.  He  therefore,  decided  that  the 
island  must  be  somewhere  in  the  torrid  zone. 

As  the  scene  was  adjusted  to  appear  closer,  he  de- 
tected a  small  snow-white  plane,  lying  in  the  water 
close  to  the  shore,  partly  sheltered  by  the  wide-spread- 
ing foliage  of  the  trees.  He  recognized  the  plane  as 
the  one  that  made  the  raid  on  the  air  cruiser  during  the 
trip  to  London  with  Kiel,  and  also  the  same  plane  that 
had  carried  him  from  the  air  liner.  He  could  see  no 
sign  of  the  pilot,  however,  nor  anyone  else  in  the 
island.  But  he  was  sure  that  the  air  man  had  a  hut 
in  the  woods  somewhere. 

For  a  moment  the  scene  remained  in  front  of  his 
eyes,  then  it  was  shut  off,  and  he  saw  the  scientist 
removing  his  head  rigging. 

"Just  gave  my  man  orders  to  look  over  the  baggage 
room  of  your  airship,"  he  informed  his  prisoner,  as 
the  latter  removed  his  head  apparatus. 

"I  didn't  hear  you  do  any  talking,"  replied  Frank. 

"I  didn't  talk,  I  just  use  my  thoughts  and  put  them 
on  the  beam.  He  receives  his  orders  direct  from  brain 
to  brain,  as  you  noticed  he  was  not  even  in  sight,  and 
I  did  not  increase  the  pressure  of  the  vision  ray  suf- 
ficiently to  look  through  the  trees.  I  merely  threw  the 
telepathy,  ray  across  the  center  of  the  isle  where  his 
cabin  is,  so  I  know  that  he  will  receive  the  message. 
Even  if  he  is  asleep  the  thoughts  will  impress  them- 
selves on  his  mind  that  he  will  awaken  with  a  clear 
remembrance  of  the  message." 

Again  he  turned  to  the  table,  and  they  were  soon 
following  the  ray  as  it  was  trained  onto  the  air 
cruiser,  which  was  now  well  out  at  sea,  speeding 


along  the  upper  air  beam  towards  New  York.  The 
vision  ray  was  soon  adjusted  so  that  the  baggage  room 
was  exposed  to  the  eyes  of  the  two  men,  and  with  little 
difficulty,  they  found  the  package,  a  small  wooden  box 
a  little  over  a  foot  square,  plainly  marked  "Light  Wave 
Receiver."  There  was  no  address  on  the  box,  in  fact 
no  other  marking  except  the  three  words. 

It  had  evidently  been  placed  in  the  baggage  room 
after  the  ray  had  been  taken  from  the  ship  as  h  lay 
in  the  station,  because  the  previous  search  of  the  bag- 
gage room  revealed  no  sign  of  the  box. 

The  wizard  gave  a  chuckle  of  satisfaction  which  pro- 
duced an  uncanny  sound  in  the  ear  units. 

Wallace  noticed  that  there  were  four  men  in  the 
baggage  room,  instead  of  the  usual  two.  The  box  was 
placed  conspicuously  as  though  they  wanted  to  make 
sure  it  could  be  found.  He  suspected  that  Riel  was 
at  the  bottom  of  the  movement,  and  that  they  had  a 
trap  of  some  sort  to  spring  on  the  raider,  when  he 
made  his  usual  call.  He  wondered  if  the  detective 
knew  the  full  power  of  the  telepathy  ray,  and  if  in 
some  way  he  was  going  to  overcome  h.  His  thoughts 
were  disturbed  by  the  sudden  shifting  of  the  ray,  as  the 
scientist  took  a  look  to  see  if  the  plane  was  on  the  job. 
But  the  little  white  plane  was  already  swiftly  cutting 
through  the  clouds,  occasionally  fading  from  sight  as 
its  color  blended  with  the  white  background,  disappear- 
ing altogether  as  it  dived  into  the  white  masses. 

CHAPTER  VII' 
New  Hope 

THE  old  man  was  apparently  satisfied  with'  the 
progress  of  the  plane,  for  he  left  it  and  swept  the 
sky  for  signs  of  any  police  planes.  The  ray  de- 
tected a  squad  of  four  planes  flying  west  about  fifty 
miles  behind  the  liner,  and  flying  much  lower.  They 
were  being  outdistanced  rapidly  by  the  cruiser,  but  the 
wizard  thought  they  were  too  close  to  be  comfortable, 
and  he  again  switched  on  the  telepathy  ray,  and  under 
the  guidance  of  his  devilish  brain  the  planes  were  turned 
north,  and  led  away  from  the  path  of  the  swift  air 
liner.  When  they  were  far  enough  out  of  the  way  to 
satisfy  him,  the  telepathy  ray  was  taken  off,  and  the 
vision  ray  switched  back  to  the  speeding  air  cruiser. 

This  time  the  control  room  was  placed  on  the  scene, 
and  Wallace  gripped  the  arms  of  his  chair,  as  he 
realized  that  he  was  about  to  see  the  manner  in  which 
all  the  previously  raided  air  cruisers  of  the  I.  A.  L.  had 
been  brought  down.  For  ten  minutes  the  ray  was 
allowed  to  follow  the  cruiser,  and  no  attempt  was  made 
to  use  the  second  ray.  The  clever  wizard  was  biding 
his  time.  He  no  doubt  would  bring  the  liner  down  at  a 
certain  spot  towards  which  the  little  white  plane  was 
speeding. 

"We  have  a  number  of  hours  to  wait  now,"  the 
wizard  said,  turning  to  Wallace.  "I  will  call  you 
when  something  interesting  happens." 

Wallace  rose  and  sauntered  through  the  room,  rest- 
ing for  awhile  in  his  own. 

Finally,  a  man  appeared  to  conduct  him  back  to  the 
laboratory. 

"We  have  the  liner  now,"  the  old  man  said.  "Watch 
it."  Wallace  put  on  the  head  set  and  saw  the  interior 
of  the  air-liner. 

The  pilot  was  leaning  against  the  window  of  his  room 
watching  an  occasional  ship  pass  on  the  surface  of  the 
ocean  far  below.  Occasionally  his  view  would  be  ob- 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


179 


structed  by  the  clouds  floating  in  the  air  below.  He 
would  see  only  a  sea  of  snow-white  clouds,  reflecting 
the  bright  rays  of  the  sun  overhead,  giving  them  a 
sparkling  silver  finish.  An  occasional  glance  at  the 
cluster  of  meters  was  about  all  the  pilot  had  to  do 
during  the  swift,  time-defying  trip  across  the  ocean. 

Frank  glanced  over  at  his  captor  who  was  connecting 
the  telepathy  ray  onto  the  vision  beam.  Then  he  turned 
once  more  to  the  scene  before  him. 

The  pilot  was  looking  at  the  meters  on  the  board,  a 
slight  frown  came  over  his  face,  and  he  rose  from  his 
seat  to  study  the  meters  closely.  He  seemed  to  have 
trouble  in  seeing,  for  he  brushed  his  hand  across  his 
eyes  and  across  the  polished  glass  of  the  petrol  supply 
meters. 

"Good  Lord,"  he  exclaimed,  "the  petrol  tanks  are 
empty,  we'll  have  to  drop  down  and  wait  until  we  get 
a  supply  sent  to  us." 

Reaching  for  the  altitude  meter  he  turned  the  adjust- 
ment key,  setting  the  meter  needle  at  zero  or  sea  level. 
He  then  switched  the  automatic  radio  control  off,  and 
the  monster  ship  tilted  slightly  forward  on  a  long,  slow 
descent.  It  gradually  approached  the  surface  of  the 
water  below.  There  was  no  call  to  the  control  room 
from  the  passenger  deck,  and  no  excited  rush  by  the 
crew  to  determine  the  nature  of  the  trouble.  They  all 
believed  that  the  fuel  tanks  were  empty,  for  the  tele- 
pathy ray  had  everyone  on  the  ship  under  its  control. 
Scarcely  had  the  craft  hit  the  water,  when  the  little 
white  plane  dropped  down  beside  it,  and  the  baggage 
room  guards,  under  the  influence  of  the  telepathy  ray, 
opened  the  door  on  the  south  side. 

Frank  was  watching  closely,  he  was  positive  that  there 
was  something  behind  the  sending  of  the  box  on  that 
cruiser,  a  trap  of  some  sort.  With  excitement  shining 
in  his  eyes,  he  watched  the  man  step  from  his  plane 
into  the  baggage  room.  The  four  guards  stood  obedi- 
ently aside  and  the  visitor,  quickly  spying  the1  box, 
picked  it  up,  tucked  it  under  his  arm  and  bowed  him- 
self gracefully  out.  A  moment  later  the  plane  was 
climbing  into  the  air  again,  and  was  soon  lost  in  the 
clouds. 

Frank's  hopes  sank  within  him,  for  he  had  counted 
on  an  attempt  of  some  sort  to  battle  the  raider.  He 
feared  that  Riel  had  planned  such  an  attempt,  but  did 
not  know  the  full  power  of  the  ray.  And  now,  with 
the  plans  of  the  Light  Wave  Receiver  in  his  power, 
the  wizard  was  liable  to  do  anything.  He  had  obtained 
from  the  world  all  that  he  desired,  and  probably  would 
start  his  reign  of  terror  to  show  the  multitudes  his 
power.  He  was  even  likely  to  keep  his  threat  of  plung- 
ing the  world  into  a  gigantic  struggle  of  extermination. 

Closing  In 

WEARILY,  Frank  removed  his  head  set,  and 
turned  around  to  see  old  Jolsen  at  his  test  bench, 
working  on  a  box  of  electrical  equipment.  He  was 
examining  the  wiring  in  the  interior  of  the  cabinet, 
carefully  making  adjustments  and  repairs. 

"The  plans  will  be  here  by  three  o'clock,"  he  an- 
nounced good  naturedly,  looking  around  at  Frank.  "I 
have  a  model  of  the  Light  Wave  Receiver  here.  I 
copied  it  from  the  inventor's  first  model,  by  the  aid  of 
my  vision  ray.  If  I  had  had  the  other  ray  at  the  time 
I  would  have  stolen  the  chemical  formula  from  his 
mind.  That  is  all  I  need  to  complete  the  receiver.  The 
formula  shows  how  to  mix  the  chemical  solution  that 
is  used  to  filter  the  waves  through." 


Frank  turned  once  more  to  the  vision  ray.  He  knew 
how  to  control  it  now,  and  his  strange  host  raised  no 
objection,  except  to  keep  the  controls  of  the  telepathy 
ray  secret.  Swinging  the  ray  along  the  sky,  he  soon 
succeeded  in  finding  the  raider  plane,  it  was  approach- 
ing the  island.  Gliding  down  onto  the  water,  the  plane 
was  guided  up  to  its  place  beneath  the  low  hanging 
trees  and  the  man  stepped  out  and  disappeared. 

Not  being  familiar  with  the  pressure  adjustments, 
Frank  was  unable  to  penetrate  the  tree  barrier,  and  he 
decided  to  wait  until  the  man  came  into  sight  again. 
He  wondered  why  the  plane  had  come  down  by  the 
island  instead  of  speeding  to  the  scientist  with  the 
coveted  plans.  He  would  have  thought  that  the  man 
was  intending  to  wait  until  dark,  so  that  there  would 
be  less  danger  of  being  detected.  He  discounted  that 
notion  when  he  remembered  that  the  scientist  had  said 
the  papers  would  arrive  during  the  afternoon.  Further, 
there  was  no  need  for  the  plane  to  fear  any  police 
while  the  ray  was  able  to  keep  them  off.  He  suddenly 
noticed  something  moving  in  the  water,  coming  into 
view  from  behind  the  trees  on  the  other  side  of  the 
island.  It  was  a  submarine,  cruising  with  decks  awash, 
the  observation  tower  only  was  above  the  water.  It 
was  moving  swiftly  around  the  island  and  was  soon 
coming  towards  him,  and  he  quickly  guessed  that  the 
submarine  was  a  part  of  the  old  wizard's  equipment, 
used  so  that  his  location  could  be  reached  with  little 
chance  of  detection. 

Wallace  followed  the  submarine  for  about  an  hour, 
then  swung  the  ray  idly  through  the  sky,  looking  for 
new  scenes  of  interest.  His  attention  was  drawn  to  a 
fleet  of  planes  approaching,  there  were  eight  of  them 
in  the  group,  flying  abreast  of  one  another  with  a 
distance  of  one-half  mile  between  them.  As  he  swung 
the  ray  from  side  to  side,  he  looked  over  the  fleet,  he 
could  form  no  idea  of  their  distance  from  him,  but 
was  thrilled  to  see  that  they  were  corning  directly 
towards  him.  If  it  was  an  attempt  to  locate  the  base, 
he  decided  that  he  would  assist  them  by  letting  them 
have  the  ray  to  follow. 

Wondering  if  there  were  any  more  craft  in  the  air 
approaching,  he  started  swinging  the  ray  around  in  a 
circle. '  Six  more  planes  were  approaching  from  the 
northeast.  But  to  the  north  the  sky  showed  no  signs 
of  any  aircraft,  although  in  the  New  York-London  air 
lane,  an  occasional  plane  could  be  seen  making  the 
ocean  hop.  Around  to  the  west  the  ray  swung,  and 
here  he  detected  a  group  of  about  twenty  ships  spread 
out  in  the  same  formation  as  the  fleet  in  the  east. 

His  heart  began  beating  quickly  with  the  excitement, 
for  there  was  no  doubt  of  it  now,  they  were  all  police 
planes.  Those  from  the  west  he  recognized  as  the 
American  Atlantic  police.  He  glanced  over  at  the 
scientist,  fearful  lest  the  old  man  would  get  suspicious 
of  something  and  take  a  look  at  the  air.  Then  he  shut 
the  vision  ray  off,  thinking  there  would  be  a  better 
chance  of  the  old  man  forgetting  it. 

For  over  an  hour,  Frank  sat  and  watched  the  master 
working  on  his  Light  Wave  Receiving  device.  And 
as  the  minutes  passed  he  pictured  in  his  mind  the  semi- 
circle of  planes  that  were  undoubtedly  closing  in  on 
the  wizard's  base.  How  close  the  planes  were  he  had 
no  idea,  but  he  was  determined  to  do  his  best  to  keep 
the  wizard's  mind  off  the  vision  set  as  long  as  possible. 

A  red  light  on  one  of  the  panels  of  the  main  switch- 
board lit  up  and  old  Jolsen  fairly  leaped  for  the  door 
which  led  to  the  small  dining  room,  disappearing  for 
a  moment  and  quickly  reappearing,  carrying  carefully 


180 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


the  box,  that  a  few  hours  ago  had  been  taken  from  the 
cruiser.  With  trembling  fingers  he  tore  off  the  cover, 
and  began  removing  the  papers  on  top.  The  box  still 
contained  much  material  for  he  had  picked  the  drawing 
off  the  very  top  and  soon  a  square  package  was  uncov- 
ered. As  he  drew  it  out  and  began  to  carefully  unwrap 
it,  a  look  of  suspicion  came  into  his  eyes.  Quickly  he 
went  to  the  experimental  bench  and  came  back  with  a 
square  cabinet  with  two  meters  on  the  top.  Carefully 
placing  the  cabinet  on  the  table,  he  turned  a  knob  and 
looked  at  the  meters.  Both  remained  still  but  as  he 
turned  the  knob  further  one  moved  over  the  scale  to 
the  right  His  face  turned  white  with  anger,  as  he 
saw  the  needle  move. 

"They  shall  pay  for  this,"  he  stormed,  and  springing 
to  the  vision  ray,  quickly  adjusted  his  head  set  and 
swinging  the  beam  across  the  sky  soon  spotted  the 
British  police  planes. 

"Oh,  my  hearty  friends,"  he  exclaimed,  swinging 
the  ray  around.  "It  was  clever  of  you  to  hide  the  radio 
set  in  the  box  of  plans,  but  now  that  you  have  located 
me,  you  shall  have  another  demonstration  of  my 
power." 

He  soon  found  the  American  fleet  that  were  steadily 
approaching  m  the  same  order.  The  other  odd  planes 
now  formed  almost  a  complete  circle  around  them. 

"We  shall  witness  another  aerial  combat,"  he  said 
in  a  lower  voice  through  the  system,  addressing  Frank. 
"We  shall  pitch  the  British  fleet  against  the  American 
planes.  They  are  well  armed  and  we  will  be  furnished 
with  real  amusement." 

Escaped! 

FRANK  was  frozen  with  horror.  He  made  op  his 
mind  that  he  would  not  stand  by  and  see  the  devil 
repeat  the  massacre.  He  would  wait  until  the  wizard 
was  ready  to  throw  the  ray  on  and  he  would  hurl  him- 
self on  ban  m  one  desperate  chance  to  save  the  fleet 
or  keep  the  ray  off  them  until  they  were  overhead. 

He  thought  little  of  his  own  danger,  his  main  pur- 
pose was  to  prevent  the  deadly  ray  from  being  used. 
Quietly  he  disconnected  his  head  set  from  the  system, 
but  still  kept  the  mask  on  and  watched  the  scene  closely. 
The  planes  came  closer  and  the  wizard  reached  for 
the  switch.  He  would  wait  until  the  old  man  threw 
in  the  switch  as  there  would  be  time  then  to  pounce 
on  him  and  throw  off  the  switch  before  the  planes 
would  meet.  The  switch  moved  under  the  finger  of 
the  gloating  maniac,  and  with  a  twist  was  thrown  in. 
"Now  watch  them  make  a  left  turn,"  he  chuckled. 
Frank  was  posed  in  his  chair  ready  to  tear  off  the 
head  mask.  He  relaxed  a  bit  and  stared  into  the  scene, 
the  planes  were  still  coming  ahead.  The  scientist  opened 
and  closed  the  switch  again.  The  planes  still  came  on, 
straight  towards  the  ray.  With  an  oath  he  swung  the 
beam  around  to  the  American  fleet  and  the  telepathy 
ray  was  again  switched  on.  Frank,  with  face  set  and 
heart  pounding,  watched.  Would  they  defy  it?  Were 
both  fleets  protected  from  the  ray? 

Snap,  the  switch  sprung  into  place,  and  two  faces 
seemed  glued  to  the  vision  reflectors.  Frank's  heart 
missed  a  beat,  he  breathed  a  silent  prayer  of  thanks — 
the  planes  were  coming  on.  With  face  white,  and  hands 
shaking  old  Jolsen  threw  off  his  mask  and  grabbing  a 
tester  from  the  bench  sprang  to  the  board,  testing  dif- 
ferent wires  and  coils,  and  after  making  a  couple  of 
adjustments,  returned  to  his  chair.  The  ray  was  again 
trained  on  the  British  fleet  with  no  effect    Like  a 


group  of  merciless  avengers  they  approached,  defying 
anything  to  stop  them. 

A  close-up  of  one  of  the  planes  was  quickly  pro- 
duced by  the  now  nervous  scientist,  and  again  the  ray 
was  turned  on  against  them,  but  not  even  a  wink  of  an 
eye  caught  the  glance  of  the  old  man.  He  was  beaten, 
his  most  powerful  weapon  was  useless,  and  his  aveng- 
ing foei  were  tightening  the  circle  around  him.  Carry- 
ing full  bomb  racks,  they  would  soon  be  swarming 
over  the  laboratory  with  him  at  their  mercy.  He  pushed 
a  button  and  rising  from  his  chair,  hastily  gathered  up 
the  Light  Wave  drawings  as  the  butler  entered. 
"Quick,"  screeched  the  old  man.  "Get  the  submarine 
for  instant  departure."  The  servant,  with  a  startled 
look  on  his  face,  quickly  disappeared. 

The  now  thoroughly  alarmed  criminal  took  time 
enough  to  smash  some  of  his  most  important  secrets, 
and  turned  to  Frank. 

"Come  on,  hurry  up  out  of  this  door,  you're  coming 
with  me,  you  know  too  much  to  be  let  loose." 

Frank  was  about  to  resist  when  two  seamen  entered 
the  room. 

"Hurry,  professor,  for  they  will  soon  be  over  us," 
one  spoke  to  the  old  man. 

Realizing  the  folly  of  resisting  such  a  cold-blooded 
man,  with  two  allies,  Frank  followed  the  two  men  out 
of  the  door  with  the  scientist  behind.  Leaving  the 
house,  they  started  down  a  path  between  some  tall 
trees,  the  two  men  in  front  broke  into  a  run  and  were 
soon  on  the  edge  of  the  island  where  a  small  boat  was 
beached.  The  submarine  could  be  seen  farther  out  in 
the  water.  Frank  saw  his  chance,  with  a  sudden  twist 
he  turned  and  before  the  surprised  criminal  had  time 
to  offer  resistance,  he  was  on  hhn  and  they  went  down 
to  the  ground  with  a  thump. 

Frank  heard  the  shouts  of  the  two  men  and  the 
pounding  of  their  feet  up  the  path.  Desperately  fight- 
ing himself  free  of  the  old  man's  clutches  he  sprang 
into  the  forest  and  raced  for  his  life  across  the  island. 
He  knew  that  his  foe's  time  was  too  precious  to  spend 
it  in  chasing  him.  Looking  around  he  saw  the  two 
sailors  struggling  with  the  man  down  the  path  to  the 
boat.  He  saw  the  boat  put  out  and  reach  the  sub- 
marine which,  without  a  moment's  delay,  submerged. 
He  scanned  the  sky  and  detected  the  small  specks  of  the 
American  fleet  approaching  from  the  west  and  for- 
getful of  his  own  danger,  leaped  around  waving  his 
hands  and  shouting  for  joy. 

With  a  deep  hum,  the  planes  approached  overhead 
and  commenced  circling  the  island.  A  small  dark  object 
dropped  from  one.  Frank  saw  it,  and  crouched  at  the 
base  of  a  tree  with  his  head  in  his  arms. 

B-o-o-m;  the  island  shook  from  the  impact.  B-o-o-m, 
a  second  one  burst  close  to  the  building  with  a  blinding 
flash,  tearing  one  side  away.  Another  one  came,  a 
closer  hit,  and  fragments  of  the  building  in  which  he 
had  spent  so  many  hours  of  mental  torture,  were  hurled 
in  all  directions,  the  building  became  a  complete  wreck. 
Another  blinding  flash,  a  deafening,  stunning  roar,  and 
Frank  suddenly  became  dizzy.  He  groped  for  the  tree, 
missed  it  and  fell  to  the  ground. 

How  Riel  Did  It 

WALLACE'S  return  to  consciousness  was  accom- 
panied by  a  headache.  He  felt  his  head,  there 
was  a  bandage  around  it.  Lying  still  with  his  eyes 
closed,  he  soon  recalled  the  events  of  the  bombing.  He 
listened,  but  all  was  quiet.  Then  the  bombing  must 
have  ceased,  he  thought,  wearily  opening  his  eyes  for  a 


THE  PLANET'S  AIR  MASTER 


181 


second.  He  was  forced  to  close  them  again  because 
of  the  strong  light  that  met  his  gaze. 

"How  are  you  feeling,  old  timer?" 

A  shiver  of  joy  ran  through  him  at  the  sound  of 
the  voice.  It  was  Riel!  Turning  over  on  his  side 
towards  the  famiKar  voice,  he  opened  his  eyes  again. 
He  was  on  a  bed  in  a  small  room  and  Riel  was  sitting 
on  the  bedside.  He  raised  himself  up  a  bit. 

"What  hit  me?"  he  asked. 

"Fragment  of  a  shell,"  Riel  replied.  "I  was  quite 
worried  about  you,  as  we  dropped  the  bombs.  But 
we  had  to  do  it.  We  dared  not  land,  knowing  the 
power  and  cleverness  of  the  man  we  were  dealing  with. 
We  had  to  take  the  chance  and  wreck  him  before  he 
could  turn  some  other  infernal  invention  against  us." 

"Well  I'm  out  of  h,  so  that's  that,"  was  the  smiling 
reply.  Then  Wallace  added  more  seriously,  "But  he 
got  away  in  the  submarine?" 

"Yes.  One  of  the  planes  spotted  him  as  he  dived, 
but  before  we  could  get  him,  he  had  dropped  so  deep 
that  we  were  unable  to  trace  him.  However,  the  planes 
are  watching  for  him  and  we've  a  chance  to  get  him 
yet." 

"But  tell  me  Riel,  how  did  you  buck  that  damned 
ray?" 

"Well,"  replied  the  detective,  "I  had  an  idea  when  I 
first  met  you  in  New  York  that  a  ray  was  being  used 
and  I  found  proof  enough  during  our  trip  to  London. 
On  reaching  England  I  commenced  to  put  into  effect 
a  plan  that  I  had  been  working  on,  prior  to  my  meeting 
you.  This  was  a  plan  to  make  a  person  proof  against 
the  ray.  The  idea  was  to  use  a  metal  cap  constructed 
of  soft  iron  which  I  was  sure  would  absorb  the  mag- 
netic waves  of  the  beam,  and  carry  them  around  the 
head,  and  in  that  way  prevent  them  from  passing 
through  and  affecting  the  brain.  To  make  a  test  of 
this  cap,  I  ordered  that  special.  You  thought  there 
were  only  two  of  you  on  the  liner,  but  there  were  three 
for  I  was  on  board." 

"You  were?" 

"Yes,  I  had  my  assistant  prepare  a  corner  of  the 
baggage  room  for  me  and  place  a  large  cylinder  of 
cast  iron  in  the  corner  during  the  night.  While  you 
were  asleep,  I  went  out  and  had  a  metal  cap  made  to 
fit  my  requirements,  and  stole  on  board  the  liner  and 
crawled  inside  the  large  cylinder  that  was  placed  on  its 
end.  When  the  vision  ray  was  put  on  the  ship  the 
next  day,  only  the  control  room  received  any  attention 
from  the  wizard,  and  I  was  not  seen.  The  metal 
cylinder  absorbed  the  ray  as  I  expected.  Of  course, 
if  he  had  used  a  greater  pressure  on  the  vision  ray, 
he  could  have  penetrated  through  the  cylinder.  But 
as  it  was,  he  didn't,  for  he  paid  little  attention  to  any 
part  of  the  liner  outside  of  the  control  room.  When 
the  telepathy  ray  was  put  on,  you  two  were  effected, 
but  my  brain  remained  clear,  which  was  proof  that  the 
cap  was  able  to  deflect  it.  Being  free  of  the  ray  and 
having1  the  spy  under  lock,  I  went  ahead  with  my 
plans  and  preparations  with  little  trouble  after  return- 
ing to  London.  I  equipped  a  number  of  our  police 
with  such  hats  skillfully  covered  to  resemble  the 
standard  police  helmet,  and  had  the  Central  Office  in- 
form the  United  States  Secret  Service  Bureau  of  our 
plans  with  a  suggestion  to  co-operate,  and  a  request  to 
equip  twenty  planes  and  crew  to  our  specifications. 

"The  United  States  readily  took  part  in  our  plans, 
and  under  my  directions,  equipped  a  fleet  of  planes. 
They  also  offered  use  of  the  light  naval  cruiser  "Lib- 
erty," which  is  the  world's  swiftest  boat  of  that  class. 


on  which  you  are  riding  now  on  your  way  back  to  New 
York.  We  then  had  both  governments  draw  all  air 
and  sea  craft  from  the  zone  where  we  had  an  idea  the 
criminal's  base  was.  We  were  about  ready  to  send 
the  box  of  plans  which  contained  a  radio  set  that  gave 
out  the  signals,  when  the  air  tragedy  took  place,  which 
one  of  our  planes  witnessed.  That  incident  caused  us 
to  equip  a  much  larger  force  with  protective  hats,  the 
extra  force  to  scout  the  sky  and  prevent  any  ship, 
caught  by  the  ray,  from  doing  any  harm.  Then  men 
in  our  police  ships,  with  clear  heads,  would  be  at  an 
advantage  over  any  plane  under  the  power  of  the  ray, 
and  would  be  able  to  use  paralyzer  gas  bombs  on  them, 
putting  them  out  of  commission  long  enough  to  allow 
us  to  finish  the  raid. 

"The  box  we  sent  on  the  liner  contained  a  radio 
device  that  was  controlled  by  a  sort  of  altimeter.  The 
radio  set  contained  a  device  with  a  set  of  codes  on  a 
cylinder  which  was  run  by  clock-work.  Ten  different 
messages  on  this  cylinder  were  each  thrown  into  circuit 
at  a  certain  reading  of  the  altimeter.  That  is,  when 
the  radio  box  was  on  a  plane  at  ten  thousand  feet,  the 
meter  reading  at  that  point  would  cause  the  contactor 
to  slide  along  the  cylinder  and  send  out  a  certain  line 
of  code.  At  sea  level,  the  meter  would  read  zero,  and 
the  contactor  would  shift  on  the  cylinder,  giving  out  a 
signal  that  we  knew  indicated  that  the  box  was  at  sea 
level.  From  the  moment  we  placed  the  box  of  plans 
on  the  cruiser,  our  planes  that  were  spread  out  all  over 
the  Atlantic  between  America  and  England,  were  listen- 
ing to  it  and  checking  it  on  their  direction  and  location 
indicating  instruments. 

A  Matter  of  a  Tin  Hat 

"AS  the  box  was  carried  out  by  the  cruiser,  and 
.f\  later  taken  from  the  plane  and  speeded  away, 
I  sent  out  the  necessary  directions  to  the  different 
planes  telling  them  what  distance  to  keep  from  the 
signals.  Gradually  we  closed  in  the  circle.  I  was 
about  to  give  the  signal  to  raid,  when  the  sea  level 
signal  announced  that  the  plane  had  come  down,  but  I 
waited  awhile  and  was  surprised  to  notice  it  on  the 
move  again,  and  later  the  submerged  signal  told  me 
that  they  were  carrying  the  box  below  sea  level  on  a 
submarine.  I  waited  until  the  submarine  came  up  and 
I  heard  the  surface  signal,  then  I  took  a  chance  on  the 
submarine  being  near  the  base  and  gave  the  signal  that 
they  were  all  waiting  for.  In  a  few  moments  a  semi- 
circle of  planes  were  closing  in  on  that  signal  box,  with 
engines  at  full  speed,  each  one  anxious  to  get  there 
first.  The  cruiser  was  only  fifty  miles  from  the  spot 
when  she  got  the  signal  and  was  there,  almost  as  soon 
as  the  planes." 

"But  why  didn't  you  tell  me  that  you  knew  of  the 
ray." 

It  was  because  I  thought  the  ray  would  be  used 
to  read  your  mind  on  the  trip  back  to  New  York  and 
if  I  had  told  you  you  would  have  had  the  thoughts  in 
your  mind  all  the  way  back.  Again  if  I  had  told  you 
of  my  plans  to  use  the  metal  caps  to  outwit  him  with, 
you  may  have  revealed  our  secret  when  he  read  your 
thoughts  and  he  would  have  created  a  living  hell  on 
this  earth  before  we  would  have  had  a  chance  to  put 
our  plans  into  effect.  Then  again  if  I  had  let  you 
wear  a  metal  hat,  so  that  he  could  not  read  your 
thoughts,  then  he  would  have  probably  detected  it 
before  long." 

"But  how  did  you  prevent  him  from  using  the  ray 
to  read  your  mind  and  learn  of  your  plans.  He  must 


182 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


have  known  that  you  were  assigned  to  the  job  of  track- 
ing him  down." 

"Yes,"  the  detective  answered.  "But  I  held  one  win- 
ning card,  the  Light  Wave  Receiver  plans.  To  get 
them,  he  knew  that  he  had  to  play  a  careful  game." 

"But  he  could  have  made  you  reveal  the  place  where 
the  plans  were  by  using  the  ray  on  you." 

"He  had  tried  it  on  me  but  was  careful  to  use  a 
feeble  power.  He  knew  that  if  he  used  sufficient  force 
to  take  control  over  my  own  thoughts,  I  would  notice 
the  effects  and  suspect  that  he  was  using  such  a  ray. 
It  was  important  that  he  keep  it  a  secret  at  least  until 
he  obtained  the  plans  from  me.  In  other  words  he 
tried  to  get  the  plans  from  me  without  betraying  his 
ray.  However,  he  did  use  the  ray  on  me  with  sufficient 
force  to  make  me  do  his  bidding,  and  that  was  when 
you  and  I  gave  up  the  papers  on  the  liner  coming  to 
London.  He  was  so  positive  that  the  plans  were  in  the 
bag  that  he  staked  all  on  obtaining  them.  In  that 
move  he  lost,  while  I  obtained  proof  that  he  was  using 
a  telepathy  ray.  When  he  got  the  papers  and  found 
them  valueless,  it  was  too  late,  for  we  were  in  my 
house  in  London.  He  doubtless  realized  then  that  I 
had  become  suspicious  of  his  ray,  and  fearing  that  I 
knew  too  much  to  be  at  large,  he  held  up  the  cruiser 
that  you  were  on,  thinking  that  you  were  I.  In  an 
attempt,  not  only  to  remove  me  to  where  I'd  be  harm- 
less against  him,  he  also  made  one  more  attempt  to 
learn  from  me  the  location  of  the  papers  before  letting 
the  world  know  of  his  ray.  You  know  the  rest.  You 
know  how  he  tried  his  last  trick  to  get  the  plans,  by 
trying  to  terrorize  the  police  organization  with  his 
message,  and  how  he  thought  he  had  succeeded,  when 
we  decided  to  send  the  plans  and  sent  a  message  to  that 
effect.  He  knew  by  then  that  I  was  aware  of  his  ray 
and  realized  the  power  of  it.  He  thought  that  I  would 
give  up  the  plans  to  prevent  him  carrying  out  his  word." 

"But  your  vision  screen.  Was  it  proof  against  the 
telepathy  ray?" 


"The  magnetic  field  turned  his  vision  ray,  and  the 
telepathy  ray,  left  with  no  conducting  path,  was  unable 
to  penetrate  the  walls  of  the  house  with  sufficient 
strength  to  be  effective." 

"Then  he  knew  that  you  could  stop  his  telepathy 
ray?" 

"At  that  range,  yes,  but  he  no  doubt  knew  also  that 
I  could  not  have  used  the  field  to  protect  the  planes  in 
an  attack  on  him.  For  with  the  ray  being  used  at  short 
range,  it  would  no  doubt  have  been  strong  enough  to 
break  down  the  protecting  fields.  I  thought  at  first  of 
using  the  field  as  protection  in  an  attack  on  him,  but 
finding  that  it  was  not  to  be  depended  on  at  close 
range,  I  was  forced  to  wait  and  find  a  better  protection, 
which  I  did  by  use  of  the  metal  caps.  So  I  believe 
that  I  did  the  best  I  could.  It  all  turned  out  as  well 
as  we  could  have  hoped  for.  We  have  broken  his 
power,  and  he  is  being  hunted  by  every  power  in  the 
world. 

"We  have  located  the  position  of  his  second  island 
by  means  of  the  signals  received  from  the  box,  while 
it  was  being  transferred  from  plane  to  submarine,  and 
a  fleet  of  planes  have  been  sent  over  to  it.  He  won't 
land  there.  And  it  will  be  difficult  for  him  to  get 
anything  to  build  another  base  with  when  he  finds  the 
eyes  of  the  world  watching  for  him. 

"The  box  that  he  got  contained  the  genuine  drawings 
of  the  Light  Wave  Receiver,  but  they  are  valueless,  for 
I  discovered  that  a  radio  company  in  France  was  mak- 
ing some  secret  tests  on  a  new  kind  of  wave,  and  some 
experts  checking  up  on  the  signals  received  by  the 
Light  Wave  Receiver  found  that  they  were  those  of 
the  French  station.  Our  master  criminal  was  so  posi- 
tive of  the  power  of  his  devilish  devices,  that  he  over- 
looked the  most  important  thing.  He  forgot  that  there 
was  a  possibility  of  his  power  being  checked  by  some 
little  thing,  say  for  instance,  a  little  tin  hat." 

"Yes,"  came  Wallace's  drowsy  reply  from  the  depth 
of  the  pillow,  "a  little  tin  hat." 


The  End. 


WHAT  IS  YOUR  KNOWLEDGE  OF  AVIATION? 

Tesf  Yourself  by  This  Questionnaire 

THE  questions  given  below  are  taken  from  the  stories  in  this  issue.    They  will  serve,  by  your 
ability  to  answer  them,  to  test  yourself  in  your  knowledge  of  aviation.    By  thus  testing  your- 
self, you  will  be  able  to  fix  in  your  mind  a  number  of  important  facts  of  aviation  that  are  pre- 
sented by  the  stories. 

The  pages,  on  which  the  answers  are  given,  follow  each  question. 


1 —  What  is  the  purpose  of  the  magnetic  beams 
in  aviation?    (Page  163) 

2 —  What  is  the  purpose  of  the  catapult? 
(Page  16?) 

3 —  What  is  the  advantage  of  the  multi- 
motored  plane?    (Page  163) 

4 —  What  disadvantages  have  the  lighter-than- 
air  ships?    (Page  133) 

5 —  How  can  one,  in  a  flight  from  London  to 
New  York  arrive  at  the  same  hour  he  left? 
(Page  147) 

6 —  How  might  a  gyroscope  control  the  mo- 
tion of  an  air  vessel?    (Page  105) 


7 —  What  changes  in  sensation  would  a  per- 
son have  in  a  ship  insulated  from  gravity? 
(Page  107) 

8 —  What  means  of  propulsion  have  planes 
other  than  propellers?    (Page  116) 

9 —  What  is  an  up-draft?  What  would  be  its 
effect  on  a  plane?    (Page  120) 

10 —  What  i»  the  fate  of  an  object  caught  in 
the  earth's  atmosphere  stream?  (Page  128) 

1 1 —  What  would  happen  to  a  plane  headed  up- 
ward if  the  "stick"  refused  to  move? 
(Page  156) 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


183 


Beyond  Gravity 

(Continued  from  page  131) 


have  to  wait  until  we  have  observed  his  condition 
before  you  can  see  him.  Will  you  please  wait  in  the 
anteroom?   We  will  call  you  after  the  examination." 

"That's  right,  Joan  dear,"  I  said,  taking  her  by  the 
arm,  "Perhaps  Bob  should  not  be  disturbed  now.  Let 
us  wait." 

As  we  walked  toward  the  end  of  the  long  ward,  I 
noticed  signs  of  life  in  the  forms  laying  between  the 
sheets  on  the  cots.  Nurses  here  and  there  were  holding 
glasses  of  water  to  the  patients'  lips  and  I  felt  en- 
couraged. But  Bob  Allison  had  been  injured,  I  re- 
membered. These  men,  I  presumed,  had  not.  That 
much  out  of  his  favor,  yet  I  could  not  suppress  a 
feeling  that  he  would  live. 

For  what  seemed  hours,  we  sat  in  the  anteroom 
of  the  government  hospital  nestling  almost  under  the 
rising  dome  of  Point  Loma.  Joan  stared  straight 
ahead  of  her  in  stony  silence,  I  toyed  apprehensively 
with  my  helmet.  Occasionally  the  door  opened  and 
nurses  entered  the  room  and  departed,  saying  nothing 
to  us.  Presently  the  knob  on  the  door  leading  out  into 
the  field  opened  and  I  was  surprised  to  see  the  portly 
frame  of  my  dear  friend  Senator  Allison,  enter  h. 
With  a  stride  I  was  at  his  side,  gripping  his  hand. 
Joan  sat  unmoved. 

"Jim  Holdon !"  my  friend  said,  surprised.  "Where's 

Bob,  Jim?  Don't  tell  me  he  is  .    Have  you 

seen  him,  Jim?" 

"Well,  Frank,"  I  said.  "I  cannot  say.  Joan  and  I 
are  waiting  until  he  has  been  examined.  But  I  have 
a  feeling  that  he'll  get  along." 

"You've  seen  him,  Jim?  He  asked,  staring  at  me 
questioningly. 

"Y-y-yes,  Frank,"  I  answered,  evading  his  eyes,  "I- 
I-have  seen  him." 

"Is  that  Joan  sitting  over  there,  Jim?"  he  asked, 
suddenly. 

"It  is,  Frank,"  I  answered.  "She's  taking  things 
pretty  hard.  Bob  stopped  to  see  us  in  Denver  just 
before  the  AnnihUator  took  off  and  was  drawn  into 
the  up-draft." 

I  turned  to  Joan  and  nodded.  She  came  forward 
falteringly.  . 

"Joan,  dear,"  I  said,  placing  an  arm  around  her 
waist.  "This  is  Bob's  father.  You  remember  him, 
don't  you?" 

"I'm  pleased  to  see  you,  Senator  Allison,"  she  said, 
"and  I  am  very  glad  you  are  here.  I  was  wondering 
if  you'd  come." 

"I  came  as  soon  as  I  could,"  he  said.  "You've 
grown  to  be  a  beautiful  woman,  Joan.  You  were  just 
a"  little  child  when  I  saw  you  last  back  in  Washington." 

"Thank  you,  Senator, '  she  said,  hanging  her  head 
modestly.  "I'm  getting  impatient  waiting  for  them  to 
tell  me  that  we  can  see  Robert.  Can't  you  do  some- 
thing? This  suspense  is  terrible!" 

I  winked  at  Senator  Allison.  His  brows  went  up  in 
understanding  surprise. 

"I  want  to  see  him  too,  Joanie,"  he  smiled,  anxiously, 
"But  I  think  it  best  to  wait  until  they  call  me." 


"I  think  so,  too,  Joan."  I  put  in. 
"Well,  alright  I'll  have  to- 


Before  Joan  could  finish  her  resigned  sentence,  the 
door  opening  from  the  ward  swung  wide  and  a  nurse 
stepped  in,  smiling.  We  stared  at  her  questioningly. 
Her  smile  made  my  hopes  race  high. 

"Lieutenant  Allison  is  doing  nicely,"  she  said.  "You 
may  see  him  now."  She  beckoned  us  to  follow  her. 

Not  knowing  what  to  expect,  we  walked  tensely 
through  the  door  and  into  the  ward.  The  cots  were 
filled  with  sitting  and  reclining  men,  some  smoking  and 
chatting  with  their  friends.  How  quickly  they  had  cast 
off  the  death-like  embrace  of  unconsciousness,  I 
thought  as  we  walked  between  the  rows  of  cots. 

Finally  the  nurse  halted  in  front  of  a  door  beyond 
the  ward  and  stood  by  while  we  entered.  I  held  Joan 
back  just  inside  the  room,  while  Senator  Allison  walked 
noiselessly  to  his  son's  bedside.  Bob  lay  motionless 
and  pale  and  I  was  suddenly  filled  with  fear.  Joan 
sobbed  softly.  Senator  Allison  bent  over  and  kissed 
his  son's  white  forehead,  sudden  tears  streaming  down 
his  cheeks.  A  lump  rose  in  my  throat  and  I  looked 
away. 

I  felt  tempted  to  take  Joan  by  the  arm  and  hustle 
her  from  the  doorway.  It  would  be  very  hard  to  look 
upon  the  death  mask  that  I  felt  had  closed  Bob's  eyes 
forever,  and  in  reverence  I  wanted  to  depart  and  leave 
his  father  alone  with  him.  I  lifted  my  hanging  head 
and  looked  out  into  the  hallway  for  an  instant  and 
then  Joan  tugged  at  my  arm.  I  turned.  There  was 
a  movement  under  the  bed  coverings  as  Bob  lifted  a 
hand  out  of  their  confines.  His  eyes  opened  and  closed 
weakly  as  his  hand  met  his  father's  shaking  palm. 

"Dad !"  he  said,  weakly.  "You've  come!" 

"Yes,  son,"  his  father  whispered.  "I  flew  here  as 
fast  as  I  could.  How  do  you  feel,  Bob?" 

"Oh,  I'll  get  along  alright,  dad,"  he  managed  to 
smile.  "My  chest  pains  a  little,  but  that's  to  be  ex- 
pected.  Have  you  seen  Joan  Holdon?" 

"I  have,  son,"  Senator  Allison  replied  with  a  happy 
grin.  "She's  here  waiting  to  see  you." 

Joan  flew  from  my  arms  to  the  bedside  and  kneeled 
down  beside  it,  sobbing. 

"Joan!"  Bob  cried,  softly.  "I've  been  hoping  you 
would  come." 

"Oh,  Robert!"  she  sobbed,  "You  don't  know  what 

I've  gone  through  with  you  hurt  and  beyond  my 

reach.    It's  been  so  terrible!" 

"Everything  is  alright  now,  Joan,"  he  whispered, 
placing  a  hand  on  her  head  and  lifting  her  face  up  to 
him.  "I  think  it  was  rude  of  me  to  get  hurt  after 
asking  to  take  you  to  a  dance  with  me.  Perhaps  you 
will  dance  with  me  later,  Joan  will  you?" 

Senator  Allison  motioned  me  to  follow  him  out  of 
the  room.   We  stepped  out  as  Joan  kneeled  closer. 

"Yes,  Robert,"  she  said,  blushing.   "I'll  dance  with 

you  all  through  life  if  you  will  hurry  and  get 

well." 

"I  can't  help  but  get  well  now,  Joan  dear."  Bob 
smiled  happily. 


The  End 


AVIATION  NEWS 

OF  THE  MONTH 


CONSTRUCTION 


Oil  Airplane  Engine  Reduces 
Plying  Cost 

THE  details  of  the  Diesel  airplane  engine 
developed  by  the  Packard  Motor  Company 
reveal  that  the  coat  of  fuel  shows  a  consider- 
able reduction  from  that  of  the  ordinary  air- 
plane engine.  On  a  test  flight  from  Detroit 
to  Langlev  Field,  Va.,  the  fuel  used  was  $4.68 
worth  of  crude  oil  against  an  ordinary  gasoline 
cost  of  J25.  Eighty  gallon*  of  crude  oil  would 
carry  a  plane  eouipped  with  the  new  motor 
as  far  as  100  gallons  of  gasoline.  The  crude 
however  weighs  about  a  pound  to  the  gallon 
more  than  does  a  high-grade  gasoline.  Large 
scale  production  a  of  the  motor  at  the  Packard 
Company  plant  is  now  in  progress. 


Safety  Devices  Aviation's 
Greatest  Need 

DEVICES  that  will  increase  the  safety  of 
planes  and  prevent  the  spins  that  cause 
so  many  accidents,  are  declared  by  Professor 
Edward  P.  Warner,  former  Assistant  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  for  Aeronautics,  to  be  aviation's 
greatest  need.  Professor  Warner^  was  speaking 
at  the  yearly  gathering  of  aviation  executives 
and  scientists  at  Langfey  Field,  Virginia.  Re- 
search work  is  already  progressing  in  an  at- 
tempt to  promote  air  safety.  Another  need 
expressed  is  that  of  instruments  which  should 
warn  a  plane  of  the  nearness  of  another.  This 
will  become  increasingly  important  as  thenum- 
bcr  of  planesa  in  the  air  increases.  Studies  of 
the  etTect  of  ice  formation  on  planes  were  also 
made,  and  the  effect  of  air  velocity  on  pro- 
peller efficiency  was  studied  in  a  gigantic  wind 
tunnel  where  a  plane  was  mounted  In  a  twenty- 
foot  air  stream  travelling  100  miles  per  hour. 


Folding  Wings  Pound  Advan- 
tageous to  Flyers 

AS  a  result  of  a  surrey  made  by  the  Fair- 
child  Aviation  Corporation,  planes  having 
folding  wings  are  shown  to  be  much  more  ad- 
vantageous to  flyers  than  those  not  similarly 
equipped.  The  crowded  condition  oft  many 
hangars  makes  the  possibility  of  an  itinerant 
flyer  finding  space  for  his  craft  very  unlikely. 
But  of  the  flyers  who  have  reported  in  the  sur- 
rey, many  nave  been  able  to  get  "parking 
space"  with  folded  wings  when  other  fivers 
have  been  turned  away.  Furthermore,  since 
most  airports  have  a  storage  charge,  depending 
on  the  wins;  spread,  a  great  saying  in  rent  is 
afforded  those  having  folding  wing  planes.  In 
many  instances  the  reduction  has  been  as  much 
as  fifty  per  cent 


Airplane  Engines  are 
Inexpensive 

ANY  popular  opinion  to  the  contrary,  the 
factory  cost  of  airplane  engines  per  horse' 
power  is  considerably  leas  than  that  of  marine 
engines  and  approximately  on  a  par  with  that 
of  railroad  locomotives,  asserted  George  J. 
Mead,  of  the  Pratt  &  Whitney  Aircraft  Co., 
in  a  paper  delivered  by  E.  A.  Ryder,  of  the 
same  company,  before  the  Milwaukee  Section  of 
the  Society  of  Automotive  Engineers. 

The  usual  cost  of  $18  per  horsepower  for 
airplane  engines  is  much  lower  than  for  marine 
steam  and  Diesel  engines,  which  Mr.  Ryder 

Eve  aa  Sl.tS  and  $145  per  horsepower.  The 
omotive  was  listed  as  costing  $20  per  horse- 
power, Including  the  tender.  The  miles  per 
overhaul  of  the  aircraft  engine  were  given  as 
30.000  to  50,000  miles,  compared  with  30,000 
miles  for  marine  engines.  100,000  for  the  loco- 
motive,  and  10,000  for  the  automobile. 


Gigantic  Bombing  Planes  for 
Next  War 

A NINE-TON  automatic  plane  carrying 
bombs  which  will  have  attached  to  It  a 
smaller  plane  containing  the  pilot  is  pictured 
for  the  next  war,  according  to  an  article  in 
Air  Travel  News.  The  monster  would  weigh 
24,000  pounds  in  all  and  hold  3.400  pounds  of 
high  explosives,  Already  testa  have  been  made 
on  the  control  of  planes  from  the  ground,  and 
the  proposal  nude  by  Lester  Bartow  is  for  the 
giant  ship.  There  would  be  two  separate  planes, 
the  one  for  explosives  and  the  small  ship  for 
the  pilot.  The  smaller  is  carried  under  the 
latter  in  the  undercarriage.  After  the  pilot  has 
launched  the  larger  in  the  air,  set  the  auto- 
matic controls  on  its  destructive  path,  he  can 
be  released  and  Jly  back.  The  author  of  the 
article  pictures  hundreds  of  such  machines  fly- 
ing over  enemy  territory,  and  at  a  prede- 
termined point  dropping  their  terrible  bombs 
over  an  enemy  city  or  territory.  Such  craft 
would  have  a  range  of  1,000  miles. 


Babson  Sees  Auto-Plane  in 
Future 

THE  day  of  the  small  plane  Is  approaching, 
lays  Roger  Babson,  business  expert,  accord- 
ing to  Atr  Trtvel  Ntwt.  Its  coming  will  In- 
fluence considerably  our  national  life.  The 
plane  he  visions  will  rise  and  descend  vertically, 
will  have  folding  wings,  will  be  able  to  land 
on  water  aud  run  through  the  streets  like  an 
auto.  In  the  future,  the  chief  means  of  travel 
on  land,  air  and  water  will  be  the  airplane. 
Because  of  the  increase  in  air  traffic  all  wires 
and  smokestacks  will  be  removed  and  so  the 
campaign  for  smoke  prevention  and  better' 
looking  cities  will  be  aided. 


Army  Tests  Propellers  in 
Bomb-Proof  Shelter 

IN  a  $5,000,000  plant  dedicated  to  aeronautical 
research,  the  Army  Air  Corps  will  begin  a 
series  of  tests  to  promote  greater  safety  for 
commercial  aviation.  The  first  tests  will  be  of 
propellers,  in  a  bomb-proof  shelter  capable  of 
withstanding  the  impact  of  a  16-inch  shell. 
Here,  on  three  giant  stands,  three  specially  de* 
siped  motors  of  2,500  to  6,000  horsepower  will 
whirl  their  propellers  at  from  720  to  4,300 
revolutions  per  minute  until  the  propellers  ex- 
plode. By  this  means  the  stresses  exerted  on 
propellers  and_  their  ability  to  withstand  them 
will  be  determined.  An  exploding  propeller  is  a 
bad  source  of  danger  in  accidents,  for  the  pro- 
peller with  the  force  of  a  16-inch  shell  might 
cut  through  the  fuselage  very  easily.  Every 
phase  of  aeronautics  will  be  investigated,  the 
design  of  planes,  structures,  wing  structures,  etc. 


Three  Miles  a  Minute  for 
Future  Planes 

rPHAT  with  the  increasing  science  applied  to 
X_ airplane  design,  tbe  plane  of  to-day  will  seem 
quite  antiquated  ten  years  hence.  Is  tbe  belief 
of  John  K.  Northrop,  chief  engineer  of  Avion 
Corporation  writing  ui  tbe  New  iork  American. 
With  the  decrease  in  weight  of  planes  by  the 
use  of  new  strong  alloys  such  as  duralumin, 
other  alloys  and  beryllium,  the  drag  on  the 
planes  has  been  reduced.  By  the  introduction 
of  enclosed  motors  of  the  'In-line"  type  tbe 
parasitic  resistance  of  exposed  motors  will  be 
done  away  with.  Three  miles  a  minute  should 
be  the  cruising  speed  of  planes  of  tbe  future 
with  an  altitude  of  15,000  to  20,000  feet  above 
sea  level.  At  this  level  the  resistance  b  leu 
and  greater  power  can  be  developed. 


Foolproof  Plane  Successfully 
Tested 

A PLANE  which  can  neither  stall  nor  go 
into  a  tailspiu  bai  been  successfully  tested 
at  the  Holmes .  Airport  by  the  Gates  Aircraft 
Corporation  which  has  the  American  rights  for 
it  Tbe  plane  is  a  Belgian  and  is  known  as 
the  R.  S.  V.  It  has  interchangeable  wings  and 
can  be  used  as  either  a  monoplane  or  a  biplane. 
It  has  been  used  for  four  years  by  the  Belgian 
Air  Force  as  a  training  plane  without  a  single 
mishap.  During  the  tests  the  pilot  pat  the 
plane  through  every  conceivable  '  stunt*  to  try 
to  make  it  stall  or  spin;  but  it  refused.  He 
even  throttled  it  at  the  peak  of  a  steep  dimb; 
but  the  plane  recovered  and  went  into  a  glide. 
Operated  as  a  biplane  it  has  a  very  alow  land- 
ing speed  so  that  it  can  be  landed  "hands  off." 
Then  it  can  be  operated  as  a  speedy  monoplane. 


New  High  Speed  Boeing  Plane 

PRODUCTION  will  soon  begin  on  a  large 
scale  of  a  new  plane  by  Boeing  built  on 
the  type  used  by  Captain  Baker  on  h!a 
Panama-United  Slates  dusk  to  dawn  flight 
In  this  flight  Capt.  Eaker  obtained  from  it 
a  speed  ot  172  miles  per  hour.  The  now 
plane  will  be  »  single  water  with  an  over- 
all wing  span  ot  30  feet  It  la  quite  similar 
In  design  to  the  large  number  of  Boeing 
pursuit  planes  used  In  army  maneuvers.  It 
will  weigh  1,4(0  pounds  completely  fueled 
and  Is  powered  with  a  4(0  horsepower  Pratt 
and  Whitney  Waap  motor.  It  will  have  a 
blaok  fuselage,  red  tail,  and  croam  wings, 
struts  and  landing  gear. 


Airplanes  Smaller  and  Larger 

pPWO  definite  trends  la  airplane  design 
toward  smaller  and  toward  larger  units 
are  perceptible  to  Bnea  Boaal,  president  of 
the  Ameiioan  Aeronautical  Corporation  as 
reported  In  Acre  Digiit.  The  first  tendency, 
toward  small  planes  la  aimed  for  the  use  as 
sport  and  Individual  flying.  These  planes 
according  to  Mr.  Boss!  will  have  a  power 
of  from  Bt  to  100  horsepower.  They  will  be 
light,  swift  snd  Inexpensive.  The  second 
tendency  toward  the  heavy  powerful  craft 
is  for  use  In  commercial  and  mail  service. 
These  planes  are  being  built  with  power 
plants  of  1,000  horsepower  or  mors.  They 
are  however  more  efficient,  per  pound  of 
plane,  than  the  smaller  units.  The  build* 
Ins;  of  the  powerful  plane  Is  particularly 
necessary  for  seaplane  service  where  ths 
rough  water  will  often  hlndsr  the  take-off, 
unless  sufficient  power  Is  developed. 


New  Monster  of  Air  to  Come 

AS  a  result  of  the  air  maneuvers  of  the  Army 
Air  Corps  a  new  monster  fighting  plane 
of  tbe  air  is  likely  to  evolve,  which  will  make 
warfare  a  more  terrible  thing  than  ever.  It 
will  be  a  great  armored  bomber  carrying  a 
heavy  load  of  destructive  bombs  and  yet  equipped 
with  plenty  of  machine  guns  to  protect  itself 
against  light  enemy  aircraft  It  was  found 
in  the  last  war  that  tbe  heavy  moving  bombers 
were  easy  prey  to  tbe  light  pursuit  planes  of 
the  enemy,  and  the  bomber  could  be  destroyed 
before  its  protecting  planes  could  a  get  into  ac- 
tion. Now  tbe  bomber  will  be  its  own  pro- 
tector; and  invincible  against  all  ordinary  air- 
craft it  will  sweep  over  enemy  territory  with 
its  great  bombs  released  on  the  way.  Then 
there  will  be  in  the  new  scheme  a  fast  bomber 
carrying  lighter  bombs,  a  speedy  pursuit  plane, 
and  high  altitude  planes  for  making  observa- 
tions. Tactics  and  strategy  of  the  air  with 
nasi  movement!  will  be  the  feature  of  the  neat 
war,  instead  of  individual  feats  of  mastery. 


184 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


185 


-OPERATION 


Landings  Atop  Buildings 
Being  Tested 

THE  feasibility  of  Undine  and  making  ■  take- 
on'  of  airplanes  from  the  tops  of  Urge  build- 
ings in  congested  areas  of  Urge  cities  u  being 
tested  by  Loc  _  American  Air  Transport  Aaao- 
cUtion.  The  importance  of  such  testa  U  equal 
to  thai  of  the  end,  to  be  gained — the  long  awaited 
solution  of  the  air  traffic  problem.  The  device 
being  used  in  the  test  is  a  platform  210  feet 
long  and  60  feet  wide.  It  would  revolve  allow- 
ing a  pilot  to  take  off  with  the  wind.  It  would 
also  be  inclined  25  degrees  allowing  him  to 
start  his  take-off  at  the  top  of  the  incline  and 
be  aided  by  the  force  of  gravity.  To  land  the 
pUnc  he  would  land  at  the  foot  of  the  incline 
and  be  gradually  stopped  by  a  series  of  spring 
cable  retarders.  A  huge  reversible  fan  would 
also  be  used  to  create  a  suction  to  keep  the 
pUnc  from  bounding  off  after  hading. 


Mail,  Not  Passengers,  Profitable 
Says  Zeppelin  Director 

¥7V£N  at  $2,000  a  head  as  fare  to  carry 
Jj  passengers  across  the  Atlantic,  passengers 
are  not  as  profitable  as  mail,  declared  Director 
Cclstuan,  of  the  Graf  Zeppelin  organization,  as 
reported  by  Wythe  Williams  to  the  New  York 
7  imrj.  For  the  space  that  he  occupies,  for  his 
weight  and  the  weight  of  the  food,  kitchen 
equipment  and  other  necessities  of  his  comfort, 
the  passenger  decidedly  takes  second  rank  as 
against  mad  or  even  freight.  Dr.  Coleman 
estimates  that  on  the  average  an  airship  making 
continent-to-contincnt  service  would  be  only  halt 
tilled,  thereby  reducing  the  average  fare  to 
$1,000.  On  a  South  American  trip  the  fare 
per  passenger  would  be  only  $1,000.  For  this 
the  passenger  with  all  his  accessories  takes  up 
1,100  pounds.  Fifteen  passengers  as  an  aver- 
■■<■■■.  therefore,  would  net  the  company  $15,000 
(for  the  16,500  pounds  tbey  take  up).  If  the 
ship  were  to  carry  100,000  letters,  however, 
which  would  take  up  only  4,000  pounds,  the 
company  would  receive,  at  twenty-five  cents  per 
letter,  $25,000.  From  a  standpoint  of  strict 
economics  therefore,  passenger  business  is  not 
profitable. 


Plane  to  Meet  Ships  250  Miles 
at  Sea 

A SHIP-TO-SHORE  service  will  be  estab- 
lished shortly  on  the  United  States  Lines, 
Inc.,  which  operate  the  Leviathan,  The  plane 
will  meet  the  chip  250  miles  at  sea,  swoop 
down  and  pick  up  mail  without  supping.  By 
this  method  a  whole  day  is  expected  to  be  cut 
from  trans-Atlantic  mail  time.  Further,  a  plane 
can  leave  the  Newark  airport,  which  win  be 
the  eastern  base,  and  carry  mail  to  the  ship 
fifteen  hours  after  it  has  sailed  from  New  York. 
With  a  ship  like  the  Leviathan  250  miles  out, 
the  plane  travelling  at  150^  miles  an  hour  would 
nick  up  mail_  from  the  ship,  and  return  to  its 
base  all  within  four  hours.  A  huge  BurinelU 
plane,  one  of  the  largest  built  in  this  country, 
will  be  used  to  inaugurate  the  service  and 
will  have  a  cruising  radius  of  4.000  miles.  It 
is  also  believed  that  the  plane  will  deliver  and 
take  off  passengers  from  the  sbfps;  tbui  allow- 
ing a  late  arrival  to  catch  the  ship  long  after 
it  has  sailed,  or  to  be  landed  in  New  York 
hours  ahead  of  the  ship,  if  be  is  in  a  hurry. 


War  Games  Prove  Value  of 
Planes 

THE  results  of  the  Ohio,  aerial  war-game 
have  proved  beyond  question  the  ability  of 
planes  to  perform  what  is  required  of  them. 
This  "battle"  fought,  according  to  Major  Gen- 
eral NoUn,  for  the  higher  tactical  instruction 
of  general  officers,  has  yielded  many  interesting 
conclusions.  The^'bombing1'  of  New  York  was 
carried  out  by  Lieutenant  Moon,  despite^  many 
difficulties.  His  refueling  plane,  by  which  be 
was  to  be  refueled  in  the  air,  forced  down  by 
bad  weather,  as  well  as  his  #  radio  plane,  be 
was  still  enabled  to  accomplish  his  mission. 
The  result  anyway  was  to  prove  the  value  of 
navigation  and  radio  in  plane  maneuvers.  The 
lessons  found  by  the  warfare  are  three.  First, 
that  it  is  feasible  to  concentrate  aircraft  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  at  a  central  point,  de> 
spite  adverse  weather  conditions.  Second,  that 
It  is  possible  for  craft  to  carry  on  operations 
in  weather  far  from  favorable.  Third, _  that  the 
equipment  of  the  air  force  is  quite  satisfactory. 
For  the  maneuvers  practically  all  the  available 
fighting  force  of  the  country's  aircraft  was  con- 
centrated at  Fairfield  Air  Depot  and  Norton 
Field  (Columbus,  Ohio). 


Motorless  Flight  with  Gliders 

DR.  WOLFGANG  KLEMPERER,  who  is 
mainly  credited  with  the  great  development 
of  interest  tn^  gliding  and  soaring  in  Germany 
and  is  now  in  this>  country  promoting  glider 
activities  and  osshttrag  the  Goody ear-Zeppelin 
Corp.,  stated  at  the  recent  aeronautical  meeting 
of  the  Society  of  Automotive  Engineers  in 
Detroit  that  the  glider  has  advantages  for  the 
study  of  design;  as  it  is  simpler  and  safer  than 
a  power  machine  for  making  experiments  and 
is  also  valuable  for  gaining  experience  in  land- 
ing. The  glider  always  takes  off  to  make  an 
emergency  landing.    Tailless  and  tandemwing 

anes  and  slotted  wings  were  used  in  gliding 
ore  they  became  practical  on  power  planes. 
The  principle  of  static  flight  is  simple;  cur* 
rents  of  air  on  the  windward  side  of  a  hill, 
along  the  seashore  or  at  the  edge  of  a  wood  rise 
faster  than  the  glider  descends  by  force  of 
gravity.  By  skirting  along  the  edges  of  a 
range  of  hills  and  making  figure  8's,  the  pilot 
can  soar  sometimes  for  noun  and  cover  con- 
siderable distances. 

The  d oration  record  rs  now  over  M  hours, 
the  distance  record  over  45  miles,  and  the  maxi- 
mum speed  between  40  and  45  mites  per  hour, 
mostly  laterally  to  the  wind.  There  are  places 
in  America,  said  Doctor  Klemperer,  where  it 
is  feasible  to  make  a  glider  flight  of  100  miles, 
and  be  believes  it  is  possible  to  make  a  flight 
from  Los  Angeles  to  San  Francisco. 


"Aviation  News  of  the 
Month" 

portrays  in  plain,  yet  concise  lan- 
guage every  important  aviation 
advance  during  the  month.  No- 
where can  the  average  reader  get 
such  a  wealth  of  accurate  and  vital 
information  condensed  into  such  a 
small  volume.  Some  40  aviation 
magazines  and  newspapers  are 
utilized  by  our  editors  in  the  com* 
pilation  of  this  department.  The 
publishers  welcome  short  contribu- 
tions to  these  pages  from  the 
various  scientific  institutions,  labor- 
atories, makers  and  distributors  of 
planes,  etc 

Safe  Flying  Lies  in  Better 
Instruments  is  Belief 

IN  order  to  test  whether  tbe  safety  in  flying 
will  be  increased  by  the  use  of  better  instru- 
ments, Lieut  Alfred  F.  Hegenberger  has  been 
assigned  to  Wright  Field,  Dayton,  Ohio,  to 
conduct  a  series  of  experiments,  says  Air  Travel 
Newx.  Lieut.  Henenbcrgcr  was  the  navigator 
of  the  first  ■  plane  to  fly  from  America  to 
Hawaii  and  U  an  exponent  of  the  "better  in- 
strument*" idea.  He  believes  that  tbe  mag' 
netism  of  the  earth  can  be  used  to  hold  planes 
to  their  coarse,  and  that  by  devices  attached  to 
the  earth  inductor  compass,  a  large  part  of  the 
human  element  can  be  avoided.  Planes,  equipped 
with  the  earth  inductor  compass,  will  merely 
set  tbe  compass  for  their  route,  and  tbe  device 
on  the  compass  will  correct  the  plane  if  it 
goes  off  the  route. 


New  Parachute  Can  Support 
Plane 


A,: 


NEW  parachute,  84  feet  in  diameter,  has 
been  designed  by  Major  E.  L.  Hoffmann 
of  the  Army  Air  Corps,  which  is  capable  of 
supporting  an  airplane  in  the  air  and  letting  ft 
down  gently,  says  Air  Travel  News.  A  recent 
test  was  made  of  h  by  hanging  on  to  it  a 
1600-pound  bomb  from  an  altitude  of  several 
thousand  feet  The  parachute  let  the  bomb 
down  to  tbe  ground  gently  but  then  much 
trouble  was  had  in  getting  the  'chute  to  re- 
lease tbe  bomb.  There  was  a  tendency  to  drag 
it  over  tbe  field  despite  all  the  efforts  of  tbe 
attendants.  The  Air  Corps  is  now  at  work  on 
a  device  wbicht  will  automatically  release  the 
weight  on  reaching  tbe  ground.  Otherwise,  due 
to  the  tendency  of  the_  'chute  to  race  across 
the  ground  with  its  weight,  and  its  unwilling- 
ness to  deflate,  it  will  be  useless. 


"Fiat  Spin"  to  be  Studied 

STUDIES  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  "flat 
spin"  which  occurs  to  planes,  often  with 
serious  results,  are  being  undertaken  by  the 
National  Advisory  Committee  for  Aeronautics 
at  tbe  Langley  Field  laboratory,  says  a  despatch 
in  tbe  New  York  Timet.  A  vertical  tunnel 
will  be  constructed  at  a  cost  of  $12,000  to  aid 
in  the  laboratory  testa.  _  It  is  believed  that 
study  of  tbe  "flat  spin'1  might  lead  to  a  method 
of  utilizing  it  for  better  landing  of  planes. 
Means  have  been  found  to  eliminate  the  spin 
where  it  is  desired,  but  the  possibility  of  put- 
ting it  to  beneficial  use,  animates  tbe  experts. 
It  has  been  found  very  often  in  military 
maneuvers  that  planes  which  cannot  spin  are  at 
a  disadvantage,  for  many  an  aviator  has  been 
able  by  a  spin  to  work  himself  out  of  a  tight 
place. 

Albany-New  York  in  Half  Time 
Now 

AN  illustration  of  how  quickly  the  speed 
of  oar  best  trains  Is  becoming  antiquated 
came  with  the  test  of  an  air  liner,  plying 
from  Albany  to  New  Tork,  with  the  Twenti- 
eth Century  Limited.  Tbe  plane  left  New 
Tork,  arrived  In  Albany,  exchanged  greet- 
ings with  the  mayor  and  returned  to  New 
Tork  In  187  minutes.  The  time  consumed 
by  the  Twentieth  Century  is  17S  minutes 
from  New  York  to  Albany.  The  plane  la 
one  of  seven  which  will  begin  a  regular 
New  Tork-Albany  service  to  run  od  a  sched- 
uled time  of  seventy-five  minutes  between 
the  two  cities. 


Four  Day  Service  to  Hawaii 
Now 

AIR  mail,  freight  and  passenger  service  be- 
tween San  Francisco  and  Honolulu  on  a 
thirty-six  hour  schedule  is  the  plan  of  tbe 
Goodyear-Zcppelin  Company.  With  New  York 
now  only  32  hours  away  from  San  Francisco, 
tbe  company  officials  expect  that  a  36-hour 
service  from  the  West  Coast  to  Honolulu  will 
put  Hawaii  within  four  days  travel  of  New 
York.  <  Tl«  company  is  at  work  on  two  lighter* 
tban-air  ships  with  which  tbey  expect  to  in- 
augurate the  service.  These  ships  are  being 
constructed  simultaneously  with  two  gigantic 
navy  dirigibles  at  Akron,  Ohio.  Akron,  H  is 
expected,  may  be  the  eastern  terminus  of  the 
air  line.  The  first  ship  will  be  launched  in 
the  spring  of  1931  to  be  followed  14  months 
later  by.  toe  second.  Tbe  dirigibles  will  be  al- 
most twice  the  size  of  the  Graf  Zeppelin,  having 
therefore  a  capacity  of  about  7,000,000  cubic 
feet.  They  will  be  filled  with  helium  instead 
of  hydrogen.  Tbe  United  States  has  already 
enough  helium  to  fill  our  airship  needs,  and 
in  fact  our  supply  of  it  will  make  us  the  world 
center  to  fill  the  needs  of  the  rest  of  tbe  world. 
The  company  is  negotiating  for  a  contract  to 
carry  government  mail  across  the  Pacific.  If 
tbe  line  proves  successful  it  might  be  extended 
to  tbe  Orient  and  Australia.  Thus  with  the 
English  air  lines  that  have  been  established  to 
India,  travel  across  three-quarters  of  the  globe 
by  air  will  be  possible. 

Radio  Sky  Road  Hoped  for 
Aviation 

THE  construction  of  a  road  in  the  sky  for 
aircraft  by  means  of  radio  is  the  plan  on 
which  aeronautical  and  electrical  engineers  are 
working.  In  the  recent  war  games  where  a 
bomber  made  bis  way  to  New  York  t broach 
adverse  weather,  the  communication  by  radio 
informing  tbe  bomber  of  his  position  and  the 
weather  ahead  at  all  times,  proved  its  worth. 
The  army  bomber  used  non-directional  radio. 
But  what  the  engineers  hope  to  do  is  to  build 
directional  beams  in  the  sky  by  which  an  avi- 
ator can  tell  at  all  times  whether  he  n  on  the 
right  patb.  Direction  beams  have  failed  in  the 
past  because  they  bad  a  tendency  to  dip  Into 
the  ground  when  they  approached  ore  deposits. 
Recently,  however,  two  National  Air  Transport 
pilots  new  "blind"  with  the  aid  of  directional 
beams.  One  of  the  pilots  traveling  from  the 
Cleveland  Airport  to  Hadley  Field,  N.  J., 
landed  at  Bellefont,  Pa.,  where  he  was  informed 
that  the  weather  was  almost  impossible  to  see 
through.  Tbe  pilot,  however,  went  on  through 
the  fog  where  beacon  lights  were  bidden  and  he 
was  guided  only  by  tbe  radio  beam  broadcast 
by  the  Department  of  Commerce.  ,*«Tbe  pilot 
concentrated  only  on  tbe  dots  and  dashes  com- 
ing from  the  receivers  clamped  to  his  ears. 
These  dots  and  dashes  told  him  on  what  side 
of  his  path  be  was.  He  traveled  safely  through 
the  fog  and  landed  at  Hadley  Field. 

(Continued  on  page  189) 


THE  READER 
AIRS 
HIS  VIEWS 


fN  this  department  we  shall  publish  every  month  your  opinions. 
I  After  all,  this  Is  your  nugaxioe  and  it  Is  edited  for  von.  If  we 
fall  down  on  the  choice  of  our  stories,  or  if  the  editorial  board 
slips  up  occasionally.  It  is  up  to  you  to  voice  your  opinion.  It  makes 
no   difference    whether    your    letter    is    complimentary,    critical,  or 


whether  It  contains  a  good  old-fashioned  brick-bat. 

All  of  your  letters,  as  much  as  space  will  allow,  win  be  published) 
here  for  the  benefit  of  all.  Due  to  the  large  Influx  of  mail,  no  com- 
munications to  this  department  are  answered  individually  unless  25c  in 
stamps  to  cover  time  and  postage  is  remitted. 


Favors  Aviation  Course 

Editor  AIR  WONDER  STORIES: 

I  have  just  received  the  first  copy  of  An 
Wok  oct  Stokiu  so  I  have  not  had  a  chance 
to  read  it  as  yet.  I  have  a  suggestion  to 
make  which  I  think  would  please  many  of  the 
readers  of  this  magazine. 

Why  not  use  a  page  or  so  from  month  to 
month  and  give  the  readers  a  courst  in  aviation 
so  that  the  ones  that  are  not  up  to  the  minute 
in  aviation  would  understand  just  what  happens 
when  s>  plane  flies.  Also  it  would  be  a  good 
start  to  anyone  who  Intended  to  take  up  avia- 
tion as  a  business  or  career  and  would  make 
the  thinkers  think  a  little  more  deeply'  on  the 
subject. 

I  am  very  much  Interested  In  aviation  myself 
and  hope  you  will  be  able  to  do  this. 

The  idea  of  putting  the  authors'  pictures  with 
their  stories  both  in  Senses  Wokdee  Stobibs 
and  An  Wonder  Stoubs  is  a  good  one.  It 
gives  the  readers  :i  chance  to  be  almost  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  the  wriler  of  the  stories. 

Wishing  the  mararine  success, 

ANTHONY  SAMARTINO, 
Philadelphia,  Pa, 

(As  Mr.  Samartino  will  notice,  beginning:  next 
month  there  will  be  an  "Aviation  Forum"  in 
which  any  reader  may  have  answered  any  ques- 
tion on  aviation.  Wo  believe  in  this  way  that 
the  educational  value  will  be  given  according 
to  his  idea.  Later  on  there  may  be  the  pos- 
sibility of  extending  this  department.  Never- 
theless we  appreciate  Mr.  Samartino's  sugges- 
tion.— Editor.) 


Questions  "Men  With  Wings" 

Editor  AIR  WONDER  STORIES:  , 

I  have  just  finished  reading  the  first  issue  of 
An  Wohbxb  Stobies  and  while  they  are  fresh 
in  my  mind  will  render  my  opinion.  I  must 
say  tost  you  have  an  unusual  magaxine — I  be- 
lieve there  is  nothing  like  it  on  the  market,  and 
it  was  a  new  experience  for  me.  I  see  that 
you  are  publishers  also  of  Science  Wonder 
Stories  which  I  intend  to  buy.  I  don't  know 
which  I  will  like  better. 

Now  as  to  the  stories.  "The  Ark  of  the 
Covenant"  is  a  crackerjack.  I've  got  my  own 
theories  about  the  robberies  which  f  don't  want 
toa  give  a,way  yet,  but  that  man  MacCIure  cer- 
tainly keeps  one  guessing.  You  editors  must 
be  cruel  to  make  a_  whole  month  pass  by  before 
I  can  go  on  with  ft 

"Islands  in  the  Air"  was  also  very  good  as 
well  as  noveL  It  was  very;  well  written,  any* 
way.  "The  Beacon  of  Airport  Seven"  kept 
me  guessing  np  until  almost  toe  very  end.  And 
say,  that  beacon  was  the  most  eerie  thing.  I 
would  like  to  sec  more  from  Mr.  Sykes. 

From  what  I  see  in  the  newspapers,  "The 
Bloodless  War"  isn't  so  far  fetched.  In  fact, 
I  think  that  with  Congressional  indolence  that 
what  Mr.  (or  I  see  it  is '  Doctor)  m  Keller  pic- 
tures may  happen.  Certainly  a  rich  country 
like  ours  is  an  inviting*  morsel.  And  how  can 
we  be  attacked  these  days  except  through  the 

Now  I  come  to  "Men  With  Wings."  Although 
I  liked  the  story  as  a  story  I  can  t  just  realize 
the  science  of  it.  Just  think,  putting  wings  on 
men.  It's  a  little  too  much.  I  think  that  Miss 
Stone  was  piling  it  on  too  thick  there.  For 
even  If  It  were  possible  at  all  (which  I  doubt) 
it  would  take  thousands  of  years  to  do. 

Well,  the  "Aviation  News"  was  very  good. 
Give  ns  some  more  of  it.  Also  I  would  like 
to  see  a  questions  and  answers  column  for  we 
fledglings  in  aviation.  I've  got  a  lot  of  things 
I  want  to  find  out. 

I  guess  I've  rambled  quite  a  bit,  but  I 
want  to  say  In  conclusion  that  I  like  your  maga- 
zine despite  the  punk  science  to  "Men  With 

HARVEY  BRTTT, 
New  London,  Conn. 
(Mr.  Britt's  kmd  comments  are  quite  wel- 
come.   Regarding  "The  Ark  of  the  Covenant" 
the  editors  found  themselves  rereading  this  won- 
derful story  with  quite  as  much  interest  as  the 


first  time.  Before  going  Into  "Men  With 
Wings"  it  might  be  well  to  call  Mr,  Britt's 
attention  to  the  notice  regarding  a  department 
for  questions  and  answers  snch  as  he  speaks  of. 

The  editors  liked  "Men  With  Wings"  and 
believe  that  the  science  of  it,  while  idealistic, 
ts  still  sound.  The  knowledge  that  we  have  of 
our  bodies  is  still  of  the  most  rudimentary 
nature.  We  are  just  beginning  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  all-important  glandi,  we  are 
still  dimly>  conscious  of  the  actual  process  of 
our  evolution:  We  are  in  brief  still  ignorant 
of  what  we  are  and  what  we  can  become. 

But  we  still  know  that  gland  secretions  affect 
our  lives  vitally.  They  govern  our  height,  and 
very  often  our  mental  capacity.  And  now  comes 
a  case  in  England  in  which  through  abnormal 
gland  secretions  a  women  began  to  show  mas- 
culine char  act  eristic i.  It  is  therefore  not  at  all 
far-fetched  that  a  great  scientist  studying  birds 
shall  experiment  with  their  gland  secretions  and 
discover  which  glands  regulate  the  size  of 
wings.  Then  he  can  obtain  the  secretions  -  and 
experiment  with  map.  Miss  Stone,  we  believe, 
was  very  scientific  in  her  picture.  She  showed 
the  evolution  as  a  gradual  one  with  all  the 
alternations  aof  hope  and  .fear  that  accompany 
actual  experiments.  And  it  was  only  after  sev- 
eral generations  that  the  alattd  appear.  If 
men  wish  wings  and  want  them  badly  enough 
we  believe  that  it  Is  probable  that  he  sbaO 
have  them. — Editor.) 

Gravity  Repulsion  Seems 
Fantastic 

Editor  AIR  WONDER  STORIES:  ■  , 

It  is  one  thing  to  deal  with  possibilities  of 
the  future,  but  it  is  quite  another  to  attempt 
to  palm  off  on  readers  fantastic  absurdities, 
concocted  in  the  feverish  brains  of  over- 
imaginative  writers. 

I  picked  up  your  An  Wokdib  Sroins 
mildly  interested  to  see  what  the  new  week 
had  brought  to  the  newsstands.  You  know 
there  is  a  weekly  crop  of  magazines,  that  like 
the  barnstorming  tours  come  to  make  a  one- 
night  stand.  I  thought  your  magazine  was  one 
of  them. 

I  found  some  stories  that  were  fair,  some 

Sand  a  third  mighty  good— namely  "The 
of  the  Covenant"  But  my  digestive 
faculties  rebelled  at  the  assimilation  of  "Islands 
In  the  Air"_and  "Men  With  Wings."  I  mmrt 
therefore  voice  my  rebellion. 

One  of  the  most  fundamental  laws  of  the 
universe  Is  that  of  gravity;  the  attraction  be- 
tween two  bodies  being  proportionate  to  the 
product  of  the  masses  and  inversely  as  the 
squares  of  the  distances.  There  are  no  ifs, 
ands  or  buts.  It  Is  a  rigid,  inflexible  law. 
Gravity  does  not  depend  on  any  medium  for 
its  transsnission  and  therefore  It  cannot  be 
shielded.  It  strikes  me  therefore  that  Mr. 
Morrow  must  have  had  a  pipe  dream. 

As  for  "Men  With  Wings/.*  well,  words  fatt 
me.  Remember,  I  don't  criticise  the  story; 
it  was  well  written  and  worked  out  nicely.  But 
I  thought  that  the  growing  of  wings  was  a 
relic  of  the  days  of  mythology.  I  am  ppen  to 
reason  on  the  subject.  In  fact  if  there  Is 
any  store  where  they  are  sold  I  might  be  In- 
clined to  buy  a  pair  myself.  Or  Invest  a  few 
hundred  In  "Wings,  Inc."  common.  But  seri- 
ously, It  seems  like  recreated  mythology,  nothing 
more. 

I  am  Intensely  interested  In  the  magazine 
however.  The  Aviation  News  was  very  well 
done, 

GEORGE  WILLNER, 
Bronx.  N.  Y. 
(The  criticism  of  "Men  With  Wings"  has 
been  answered  in  our  comment  on  Mr.  Britt's 
letter.  Regarding  the  analysis  of  "Islands  in  the 
Air"  we  call  attention  to  the  latest  theory  of 
Einstein.  Gravity,  Einstein  says,  is  magnetism, 
and  therefore,  as  such,  is  susceptible  to  the 
same  laws.  In  a  recent  demonstration  cobalt- 
steel  was  shown  to  have  the  faculty  of  acting; 
as  a  gravitational  shield.  The  exact  limit  or 
the  power  of  cobalt-steel  baa  not  been  de- 
termined.  Wc  do  not  suggest  that  gravitational 


repulsion  will  come  through  the  use  of  cobalt- 
steel  as  a  shield,  nor  in  exactly  the  ™>""t  that 
Mr.  Morrow  suggests.  But  we  do  state  em- 
phatically our  belief  that  man  will  eventually 
learn  enough  about  gravitation  to  control  it  for 
our  uses  in  a  manner  outlined  by  Mr.  Morrow. 
With  the  cumulative  effect  of  our  scientific 
knowledge,  perhaps  we  shall  have  an  Einstein, 
in  every  generation,  and  with  each  one  starting; 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  other  and  adding  to 
tt  bis  own  genius,  the  mysterious  laws  that 
govern  our  universe  are  surely  going;  to  be 
stripped  of  their  cloud  of  darkness  and  bo  un- 
veiled to  the  light.— Editor.) 


Voices  Heartfelt  Appreciation 

Editor  AIR  WONDER  STORIES: 

Permit  me  to  voice  my  heartfelt  appreciation 
for  the  opportunity  to  read .  your  most  stimu- 
lating first  issue  of  Am  Wohdbb  Stobibs. 

I  was  especially  Interested  in  "Men  With 
Wings."  I  believe  that  your  author  has  pre- 
sented a  picture  which  should  strike  home  to 
everyone.  I  take  it  that  Miss  Stone  meant  the 
story  to  have  not  only  o  literal  but  also 
figurative  meaning,  the  tatter  being  the  neces- 
sity of  the  "wings"  of  aspiration  to  make  oar 
otherwise  commonplace  life  worth  while.  She 
drew  a  masterly  picture  of  the  group  of  ideal- 
istic people,  endowed  with  the  wings  to  soar 
above  the  earthly  aspiration  of  their  neighbors, 
WALLACE  ME  EG  HAN, 
Chicago,  III. 
(We  appreciate  Mr.  Meeghan's  nice  words. 
They  are  very  stimulating.  We  ore  In  eotire 
concurrence  with  his  views  on  "Men  With 
Wings."  He  has  seen  deeply  Into  the  heart  of 
the  story.  We  believe  that  if  aviation  will  do 
no  other  thing,  it  wfll  give  man  a  new  mental 
stimulation  to  a  degree  that  he  has  never  bad 
before.  Rising  unto  the  air  and  viewing  bis 
civilisation  from  the  height  of  1000,  5000  or 
20,000  feet  he  cannot  help  but  come  to  a  new 
perspective  of  it,  and  a  new  evaluation.  And 
the  effect  of  it  will  be  surely  to  help  him  along 
the  road  to  material  and  spiritual  progress,— 
Editor.) 

Am  Wonder  Stories  a  Huge 
Success 

Editor  AIR  WONDER  STORIES: 

Congratulations  —  your  first  issue  of  Art 
Wonder  Stobies  is  eertalnly  a  huge  success. 
It  contains  the  best  collection  of  air  stories  that 
I  have  ever  seen  gathered  together  in  one 
magazine.  In  trying  to  determine  the  best 
story  I  think  that  it  is  a  close  race  between 
"The  Ark  of  tbc  Covenant"  and  "Men  With 
Wings."  The  story  "Men  With  Wings"  docs 
not  contain  so  very  much  science  bat  it  is  an 
excellent  story. 

I  think  that  Dr.  D.  H.  Keller  is  one  of  Tour 
best  writers:  whenever  I  see  a  story  by  him  I 
know  that  I  am  in  for  a  treat,  I  do  not  know 
if  H.  H.  Simmons  (author  of  the  "Hicks'  In- 
ventions With  a  Kick"  stories)  writes  air 
stories  or  not,  if  so,  I  think  that  one  of  his 
stories  once  in  a  white  would  put  an  extra  kick 
into  the  magazine. 

I  am  a  subscriber  to  Air  Wokdbb  Stobies, 
Science  Wonder  Stories,  and  Scibkce  Won- 
DEI  Quarterly.  I  would  like  very  much  to 
know  ff  you  are  going  to  put  out  a  quarterly, 
semi-annual  or  annual  to  the  Aia  Wohdbb 
Stobibs? 

Hoping  you  great  success  for  all  these 
magazines. 

ALBERT  TAYLOR, 
Jacksonville,  Texas. 
(Mr.  Taylor's  letter  is  typical  of  so  many 
that  we  have  received  complimenting  as  on 
the  first  issue  of  Aib  Wonder  S tobies.  The 
reception  that  the  fint  Issue  received  was  very 
encouraging.  It  looks  as  though  An  Wonder 
Stobies  will  become  one  of  the  potent  forces 
in  aviation  In  this  country,  pointing  the  road 
toward^  future  developments.  An  announcement 
regarding  a  possible  Quarterly  or  Annual  to 
Air  Won  pi:  »  Stories  wtB  probably  be  nude  in 
tbc  near  future. — Editor J 

(Continntd  on  p*9'  188) 


186 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


Brand  New  Science  Fiction  Stories 


We  are  presenting  to  our  readers  the  first 
six  numbers  of  our  new  Science  Fiction 
Stories. 

The  Editors  of  SCIENCE  WONDER 
STORIES  have  received  such  a  large  supply  of 
really  excellent  science  fiction  stories,  that  we 
have  decided  to  publish  some  of  them  in  book 
form.  These  small  books,  illustrated  by 
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be  issued  from  time  to  time. 

REMEMBER  THESE  ARE  BRAND 
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PUBISHED  BEFORE  IN  ANY  MAGA- 
ZINE. THEY  CAN  ONLY  BE  SECURED 
THROUGH  THE  SCIENCE  FICTION 
SERIES. 

Every  book  contains  but  a  single  story  by 
a  well-known  science  fiction  author. 

The  type  is  large  and  well-readable,  and 
the  size  of  each  book  is  6x8  in.,  which  makes 
it  convenient  to  carry  one  of  them  in  your 
NOT  LESS  THAN  FIVE  BOOKS  SOLD. 


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60c  prepaid. 

All  orders  filled  promptly. 

STELLAR  PUBLISHING  CORP. 
98  Park  Place,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

No.  1 

THE  GIRL  FROM  MARS 

By  Jack  Williamson  and 

Miles  J.  Brcuer 

Suppose  some  one  from  another  planet 
landed  on  our  earth.  What  would  happeta? 
"The  Girl  From  Mars,"  by  Jack  William- 
son and  Dr.  Breucr  is  an  adventure  of  a 
Martian  visitor,  with  all  the  strange  situa- 
tions that  one  can  imagine  in  such  an  event 


No.  2 

THE  THOUGHT  PROJECTOR 
By  David  H.  Keller,  M.D. 

The  power  of  suggestion  on  the  human 
mind  forms  the  basis  of  "The  Thought  Pro- 
jector," by  Dr.  David  H.  Keller.  Ideas 
repeated  over  and  over  exert  a  great  force 
on  mp,  they  penetrate  our  minds  and  give 
us  ideas  that  we  often  think  are  our  own. 


No.  3 

AN  ADVENTURE  IN  VENUS 
By  R  Michelmore 

Aviation  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  years 
hence  will  probably  be  something  beyond 
most  of  our  present  conceptions.  Journeys 
to  other  planets  may  well  become  a  com- 
monplace as  it  does  In  the  present  story 
showing  an  exciting  "Adventure  in  Venus. ' 


No.  4 

WHEN  THE  SUN  WENT  OUT 
By  Leslie  Stone 

The  sun  is  said  to  be  slowly  cooling,  and 
generations  many  thousands  of  years  hence 
must  face  the  problem  of  how  their  heat 
and  light  is  to  be  provided  when  the  sun's 
end  does  come.  In  this  thrilling  story, 
"When  the"  Sun  Went  Out,"  Leslie  Stone 
answers  that  question. 

No.  5 

THE  BRAIN  OF  THE  PLANET 
By  Lilhh  Lorraine 

If  a  super- intelligence  could  have  its  wis- 
dom poured  into  our  brains,  what  a  different 
world  we  might  have"  Miss  Lorraine  in 
the  "Brain  of  the  Planet"  poses  such  a 
proWera  and  works  out  the  answer  in  an 
astounding  manner.  

NO;  6 

WHEN  THE  MOON  FELL 
By  Charles  H.  Colladay 

Collisions  between  celestial  bodies  of  any 
size  have  not  occurred  within  historical 
times.  But  such  an  event  is  not  an  impossi- 
bility. In  fact  many  astronomers  believe 
that  our  solar  system  came  into  being  by 
such  a  collision.  Suppose  the  moon  wete 
to  crash  into  the  earth.  What  would  hap- 
pen? In  "When  the  Moon  Fell,"  by  Charles 
M.  Colladay  you  will  find  the  answer. 


SCIENCE  ACTION  SERIES 
JTHE 

GIRL7R0MMARS 

BY 

JACK  WILLIAMSON 
WILES  J.  BREUCR 


STELLAR  PUBLISHING  CORP. 

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Gentlemen: 

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O  1  THE  GIRL  FROM  HARS 

□  2  THE  THOUGHT  PROTECTOR 

□  3  AN  ADVENTURE  IN  VENUS 

□  4  WHEN  THE  SDH  WENT  OUT 

□  5  THE   BRAIN  OF  THE  PLANET 

□  «  WHEH  THE  HOOK  FELL 


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188 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


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How  a  Plane  Operates 

Editor  AIR  WONDER  STORIES: 

Air  Won  dm  Monies  ii  alright.  Victor 
MacClurc,  Morrow.  Sykes,  Keller  and  Stone 
arc  all,  in  my  opinion,  first-class  authors,  i 
enjoyed  each  o£  the  stories  immensely,  even 
though  I  knew  very  little  about  aviation. 

In  your  stories  I  felt  as  though  I  were  np 
in  tho  clouds,  flying  with  the  characters,  and 
could  look  down  ana  see  the  landscapes  spread- 
ing out  for  miles  around  me.  Then  I  would 
aay  to  myself,  "Well,  here  1  am;  1're  realized 
my  ambition  to  fly,  but  bow  does  the  darned 
thing  work?" 

Since  yuu<  have  been  a  beacon  of  enlighten* 
rocnt  on  scientific  things  for  many  years,  I 
take  the  liberty  of  asking  you  a  few  questions 
about  the  operation  of  the  airplane. 

1.  What  is  it  that  makes  the  thing  go? 

2.  Since  the  plane  ia  heavier  than  air,  what 
keeps  it  in  the  air? 

3.  What  U  it  that  steers  the  plane:  what 
makes  it  go  up  or  down  or  turns  it  left  or 
right? 

If  you  can  find  space  in  your  columns,  I 
would  appreciate  very  much  an  answer  to  these 
questions,  as  I  know  there  arc  a  great  man/ 
like  myself  who  are  anxious  to  learn. 

BENJAMIN  JENKINS. 

Los  Angeles,  Caiif. 

(We  might  say  that  we  have  anticipated  the 
requests  oi  men  like  Mr,  Jenkins,  who  are 
eager  to  I  earn  the  why  and  wherefores  of  avia- 
tion, and  are  beginning,  with  the  September 
issue,  a  department  called  "Aviation  Forum," 
in  which  all  questions  on  aviation  will  be  an- 
swered. For  this  purpose  wea  have  gathered 
about  us  a  staff  of  aeronautical  experts  to 
assist  us  in  conducting  the  department. 

The  answers  to  Mr.  Jenkins'  questions  are 
as  follows: 

1.  The  propelling  force  of  a  plane  is,  of 
course,  an  engine  which  rotates  a  propeller. 
The  propeller,  in  cutting  the  air  at  a  great 
speed,  like  a  screw,  works  columns  of  air  back- 
ward and  draws  the  plane. 

2.  The  sustaining  force  for  the  plane  Is  the 
air  pressure  under  the  wings.  In  other  words, 
the  velocity  of  the  plane  through  the  air  creates 
a  ( pressure  of  air  which,  acting  against  tho 
wings,  sustains  the  plane.  Since  the  air 
pressure  is  _  dependent  on  the  velocity  of  the 
plane,  and  since  there  is  a  minimum  air  pressure 
necessary  to  sustain  the  plane,  there  js  a  mini- 
mum velocity  at  which  the  plane  will  remain 
in  the  air. 

3.  At  the  tail  of  the  plane  Is  a  vertical,  mov- 
able vane,  called  the  rudder.  If  the  foot-bar 
In  the  cockpit  is  depressed  with  the  right  foot, 
the  vane  is  swung  toward  the  right.  That 
creates  an  added  pressure  against  the  right  side 
of  the  vane  which  swings  the  tail  around  to 
the  left,  and  therefore  turns  the  plane  around 
to  the  right.  The  opposite  would  be  true  in 
depressing  the  left  foot-bar. 

At  the  tail  of  the  plane  fa  a  horizontal  mov- 
able vane.  When  the  pilot  moves  his  control 
stick  forward  the  vane  is  lowered.  Therefore 
there  is  an  upward  pressure  on  the  vane  which 
tends  to  lift  toe  tail.  This  turns  the  nose  of  the 
plane  down  and  thereby  sends  it  toward  the 
earth.  The  opposite  would  be  true  by  pulling 
the  control  stick  back. 

For  "banking"  the  plane,  that  Is,  turning1  the 
thing  on  its  side  [which  is  necessary  when 
changing  direction  at  a  high  velocity],  there  are 
the  ailerons,  one  located  in  the  rear  of  each 
wing.  By  ■  moving  the "  control  stick  to  the 
right,  the  right  aileron  is  lifted,  and  the  left 
one  lowered.  This  creates  a  downward  pressure 
on  the  right  aileron  and  an  upward  on  the  left 
one.  Thus  the  plane  banks  to  the  right.  To 
bank  to  the  left  the  control  stick  Is  moved  to 
the  ItP.  U0tm  ■) 


The  Best  Aviation  Magazine 

Editor  AIR  WONDER  STORIES:  m 

I  have  read  through  Aik  Wow  on  Stoiies 
from  cover  to  cover  and  pronounce  it  the  best 
aviation  magazine  I've  seen  yet  And  I've 
seen  plenty.  I  always  thought  that  there  was 
a  place  for  a  good  magazine  dealing  with  the 
air,  and  naturally  It  should  have  occurred  to 
me  that  who  but  my  good  friend  Mr.  Gernsback 
should  edit  it. 

BERTRAND  HICKMAN. 

Montclair,  N.  J. 
(Another  of  the  complimentary  letters  that 
have  come  to  us  about  the  first  issue  of  Aia 
WoHosa  Stories  is  Mr.  Hickman's,  We  are 
sure,  that  with  the  plans  we  have  in  mind  for 
it  that  Aia  Woxetn  S roams  will  become  a 
force  operating;  toward  the  "greater  glory"  of 
aviation  in  this  country  and  abroad.— Editor.) 


Every  Aviation 
Question  Answered 

By  Victor  W.  PAGE'S 
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Sample,  Particulars  Free.  Eastia  Feature 
Films,  Dept.  B,  Cjlesburg,  III.  

_  -   opppRTOTmr 

501  Ways  to  make  money.  Particulars  free^ 
C.  Terry.  196*  W.  7th  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  V. 

 SQltO  PORK  WRITERS  

SONG  POEM  WRfTERS-"real"  proposition. 
Hibbeler,  D1SJX,  2104  N.  Keystone,  Chicago. 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


189 


AVIATION  NEWS 

(Continued) 


Refueling  in  Air  Opens  New 
Possibilities 

BY  the  establishment  this  year  of  two  mw 
endurance  records  for  plane*,  made  possible 
by  rcfacttnf  in  the  air,  the  possibilities  of  im- 
proved service  of  commercial  planes  have  been 
opened.  Aviation  caecotives  are  becoming  in- 
terested in  the  idea,  and  alto  in  the  tests  that 
have  been  made  to  allow  a  plane  to  make  a 
pickup  of  pay-load  or  fnel  from  the  sjraund 
while  in  motion.  Competition  between  air-lines 
is  becominf  keen  and  toe  difference  of  an  hour 
that  represents  the  time  for  refueling  on  the 
ground  may  well  represent  the  success  or  failure 
of  an  air-line. 

Complete  Weather  Reports  for 
Air-Rail  Route 

WHEN  the  Transcontinental  Air  Transport 
Company  begins  ita  iortv-cigut  hour  air- 
rail  service  between  New  \!6rk  and  the  Pacific 
Coast  it  will  have  a  complete  weather  determin- 
ing bureau  all  its  own.  There  will  be  ten  regu- 
lar meteorological  stations  between  the  terminals 
at  Columbus,  Ohio  and  Los  Angeles  and  seventy- 
two  additional  observation  stations  along  the 
route  and  on  off-line  points  to  the  north  and 
south,  so  that  no  unexpected  change  may  come. 
Each  of  the  main  stations  will  be  manned  by 
a  trained  meteorologist  who  will  forward  com- 
plete weather  reports  of  his  particular  area  to 
otber  points  along  the  line  and  to  pilots  before 
they  leave  for  the  next  _  landing  field-  A  com- 
plete radio  system  wQl  inform  pilots  and  other 
stations  of  any  unexpected  change.  Four  ques- 
tions will  be  answered  by  the  weather  service: 
What  weather  conditions  prevail  at  the  desti- 
nation, what  conditions  will  be  encountered 
along  the  route,  what  and  where  changes  will 
occur,  and  at  what  altitude  most  favorable 
flying  conditions  will  be  found. 


-General 


Air  Train  Seen  as  Possible  Now 

WITH  experiments  going  forward  in  Ger- 
many with  the  towing  of  gliders  by  motored 
planes,  the  prospects  of  having  "air  trains" 
seem  to  become  opened.  In  tbe  German  tests 
two  or  three  gliders  were  attached  in  a  string 
after  the  motored  plane  which  supplied  the 
power.  Wfaat  has  been  vUiooed  is  that  auch 
a  train,  each  plane  loaded  with  freight  and 
having  no  pilot  except  in  tbe  motored  plane, 
might  set  out  across  country  and  each  of  the 
gliders  be  "unhitched"  at  Its  destination  to 
glide  automatically  to  a  landing  field.  Recent 
snecesaful  tests  of  the  pilotless  airplane  have 
been  made  by  tbe  National  Air  Transport,  ac- 
cording to  Reginald  M.  Cleveland  in  the  New 
York  Timrr.  A  plane  was  operated  for  thirty 
minutes  continuously  without  assistance  from 
tbe  pilot  except  occasional  pressure  on  tbe 
rudder  bar.  A  vane  is  supported  on  the  upper 
wing,  in  the  automatic  device,  and  points  into 
the  wind.  A  pendulum  extending  from  tbe 
interior  of  the  fuselage  and  tbe  vane,  _  is  con- 
nected to  two  motors,  one  controlling  the 
ailerons  and  tbe  other  tbe  elevators.  A  longi- 
tudinal or  lateral  motion  of  the  plane  causes 
a  similar  motion  of  tbe  vane  and  pendulum 
which  actuates  the  motors  and  restores  tbe 
stability. 


Aviation's  Past  and  Future 

"TPHE  strongest  and  most  important  organ]- 
1  ration  in  America  dealing  with  aviation  is 
tbe  Society  of  Automotive  Engineers,  _  and  (  it 
is  not  unlikely  that  aeronautical  engineering 
may  In  the  future  become  tbe  major  activity 
of  the  Society,"  according  to  Prof.  ).  H. 
Parkin,  who  is  in  charge  of  aeronautic  and 
research  work  in  tbe  faculty  of  applied  science 
and  engineering  of  tbe  University  of  Toronto. 

Professor  Parkin  recently  reviewed  the  prog- 
ress made  by  aviation  during  tbe  last  20  years 
in  an  address  before  the  Canadian  Section  of 
the  Society.  He  reminded  his  audience  of 
Bleriot's  flifbt  across  the  English  Channel  20 
years  ago  in  a  small  monoplane  powered  by  a 
three-cylinder  3  5 -horsepower  engine.  During 
the  same  year,  the  first  international  aviation 
meet  was  held  at  Rheims,  France,  at  which  tbe 
following  records  were  established:  speed,  Cur- 
tissv  47  miles  per  hour;  altitude,  Latham.  508,5 
feet;  and  distance,  Farman.  Ufl  miles  in  3J4 
hours.  Corresponding  records  today  are  319.57 
miles  per  boar,  38,800  feet,  and  4,417  miles. 


Radio  Directional  System 
to  Chicago 

BECAUSE  of  the  bend  in  the  air  route  to 
Chicago  caused  by  Lake  Michigan,  It  baa 
been  necessary  to  Install  a  radio  range 
beacon  at  Goshen,  Ind.,  and  a  marker 
beacon  at  Chicago.  Tbare  will  bo  no  direc- 
tional beacon  at  Chicago.  Planes  west- 
bound from  Cleveland  will  follow  tho  was* 
beam  from  there  until  the  east  beam  at 
Goahsn  is  picked  up  and  tben  followed  to  It* 
source.  Goshen's  west  beam  will  then  be 
followed  and  marker  beacons  at  Lansing, 
Ohio  and  Calumet,  Ind.,  will  be  picked  up 
until  the  Chicago  baacon  is  reached.  Thus 
the  complete  New  York-Chicago  radio  beacon 
system  will  bo  completed. 


Human  Element  Causes  Most 
Accidents 

A SURVEY  by  the  Department  of  Commerce 
of  toe  causes  of  accidents  to  aircraft  dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  1928  revealed  that  very 
few  accidents  are  caused  by  structural  failure 
of  tbe  plane.  In  fact,  during  that  period  no 
such  structural  failure  occurred.  Only  15  per 
cent,  of  the  accidents  were  caused  by  saotor 
failure,  while  the  failure  of  the  human  equation 
accounted  for  more  than  half  of  the  accidents. 
Tbe  figures  seem  to  indicate  that  stricter  rules 
are  necessary  for  pilots,  better  training,  and 
rigid  enforcement  of  all  rules  pertaining  to 
tbe  pilots.  Tbe  weather  and  airport  hazards 
also  showed  a  gratifying  decrease  from  the  last 
period  studied. 

Inclined  Runway  for  Plane 

A DEVICE  to  enable  a  plane  to  take-off  from 
an  inclined  t  runway  has  been  made  by 
C.  Francis  Jenkins,  noted  television  inventor. 
Believing  that  planes  are  capable  of  sustaining 
in  tbe  air  a  greater  weight  than  they  can  take- 
off with,  he  has  constructed  the  chute,  at  the 
top  of  which  tbe  plane  stands  when  ready  for 
tbe  take-off.  It  slides  down  the  chute  and  when 
it  reaches  the  end  it  has  a  speed  far  greater 
than  that  necessary  for  the  take-off.  This,  in 
the  inventor's  opinion,  will  eliminate  tbe  neces- 
sity for  large  fields  to  supply  tbe  necessary 
space  for  tbe  usual  take-off.  Airport  operators 
therefore  will  not  have  to  go  so  far  from  tbe 
centers  of  population  to  find  such  a  field. 
Jenkins  is  also  the  inventor  of  a  method  of 
reversing  the  motion  of  the  propeller  so  that 
a  plane  may  have  a  braking  effect  exerted  on 
it  after  reaching  tbe  ground,  thereby  reducing 
the  space  necessary  for  landing. 

Mitchell  Denounces  Coolidge 
Air  Policy 

A THOROUGH  denouncing  of  the  air  policy 
of  the  Coolidge  administration  is  contained 
ia  Aeronautic*  in  an  article  by  General  William 
MitcbcU,  former  commander  of  the  Air  Force 
of  the  A.  E.  F.  and  Director,  Military  Aero- 
nautics, U.  S.  Army.  General  Mitchell's  in- 
dictment is  directly  chiefly  against  tbe  policy  of 
having  tbe  development  of  aviation  in  the  coun- 
try divided  among  <  the  Commerce,  Navy  and 
Army  Departments  instead  of  centralised  under 
an  Aeronautics  Department.  "We  are  entering 
an  aeronautics  era,"  says  Mitchell,  with  air- 

E lanes  constantly  attaining  new  records  for 
eight,  speed,  endurance.  Tbe  supremacy  of 
aircraft  in  time  of  war  has  been  s  established. 
From  the  lessons>  of  tests  made  in  1921  on 
battleships  be  believes  that  "no  ship  can  live 
on  tbe  surface  of  tbe  water  in  the  face  of 
aircraft,"  And  in  land  warfare  their  supremacy 
It  also  unquestioned.    "Three  or  four  4-ton 

Iibosgene  or  mustard  gas  bombs  from  airplanes 
lunched  100  miles  from  New  York  and  hitting 
on  Manhattan  Island  will  cause  absolute  and 
immediate  evacuation  of  the  city." 


"A  Bridal  Eve" 


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tor  $1.00.  All  13  for  $3.90.  Rant  atalad  In  plain 
wrtppar.  General  Dfllrery  it  deilmt  All  orderi  rnurt 
be  prepaid  In  Hanoi  or  money  order.  PARK  PUB8. 
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AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


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AVIATION  NEWS 


-  GENERAL  (Cont.)  - 

"Soaring  Bird*'  Invention  Ridi- 
culed 43  Years  Ago 

IN'  the  sessiotu  of  the  august  American  Asso- 
ciation (or  the  Advancement  o(  Science,  43 
years  ago,  _  a  Professor  Lancaster  presented  a 
paper  proving  that  man  might  fly  by  ase  of  a 
mechanical  contrivance.  The  professor  brought 
before  the  society  a  number  of  diagrams  show- 
ing that  flight  was  possible  providing  the  power 
plant  necessary  could  be  obtained.  Physicists 
and  mathematicians  laughed  at  the  old  man. 
When  he  came  before  the  convention  again, 
bis  paper  was  censored  and  when  be  attempted 
to  read  it,  be  was  ordered  to  leave  the  rostrum. 

(The  lesson  of  this  should  sink  deeply.  We 
sophisticated  moderns  today  scoff  too  easily  at 

froposed  inventions  that  seem  revolutionary.— 
ditor.) 

Man  Has  Always  Desired  to 
Fly  Says  Historian 

THE  .desire  to  fly  has  not  been  a  recent 
acquisition  of  man,  concluded  Dr.  Ilertbold 
Laufer  who  has  just  written  "The  Prehistory 
of  Aviation,"  which  has  been  published  by  the 
Field  Museum  of  Natural  History  of  Chicago. 
Dr.  Laufer "  traces  back  through  man's  known 
history  the  influence  of  the  desire  toa  be  in  the 
air,  and  he  finds  that  many  mythical  heroes 
have  been  endowed  with  the  ability  to  fly. 
"Our  airplanes,''  be  says,  "can  trace  their 
pedigree  back  to  the  kites  which  originated  in 
China.  Our  modern  progress  with  aviation  has 
Its  backgroundln  the  gradual  evolution  of  ideas, 
and  the  experiments,  triumphs  and  failures  of 
many  ages.  An  imperial  fiver,  be  says,  opened 
up  the  history  of  China,  and  a  royal  flyer  opens 
up  the  first  chapter  of  Britain's  history.  There 
■re  tales  about  aerial  cars  floated  by  copper 
globes  holding  a  vacuum,  and  propelled  by  sails 
and  oars.  From  India  there  comes  the  story 
of  early  attempts  at  the  construction  of  a 
dirigible.  Man,  it  seems,  has  always  been  en- 
vious of  the-  birds. 

Future  Airports  to  be  Triangular 
Says  Expert 

FROM  the  necessity  of  having  airports  so 
shaped  that  planes  may  land  in  them  from 
any  direction,  the  future  airport  will  ( probably 
be  shaped  as  an  equilateral  triangle,  said  Gaven 
Hadden  at  the  first  annual  meeting  of  the 
Airport  Section  of  the  Aeronautical  Chamber 
of  Commerce.  For  with  a  triangle  a  greater 
amount  of  landing  possibilities  are  afforded 
with  the  minimum  of  area  required.  He  men- 
tioned also  that  the  increased  capacities  of 
landing  fields  necessary  to  take  care  of  In* 
creasing  number  of  planes  would  tax  the  fields 
soon.  Not  only  adequate  lengths  of  fields  are 
necessary  but  also  adequate  widths.  P.  C. 
Hingsburg,  of  the  Department  of  Commerce, 
stated  that  weather  service  over  the  secondary 
air  network  of  the  country  would  be  available 
on  July  1.  Three  hundred  airports  would 
gather  weather  data  on  a  three-hour  basis,  for- 
ward it  to  Weather  Bureau  stations  whera 
maps  would  be  made  and  the  data  broadcast  over 
the  radio.  Any  airport  located  near  an  airway 
radio  station  then  may  tune  it  to  receive  reports 
on  weather,  visibility,  ceiling,  etc. 

Strict  Flying  Rules  Now 
Suggested 

THE  chances  of  accidents  at  airports  where- 
a  number  of  machines  may  wish  to  take-off 
or  land  at  the  same  time  are  very  great  unless 
strict  flying  rules  are  effected  and  enforced, 
according  to  the  Department  of  Commerce.  Tak- 
ing a  lesson  from  the  great  European  airports. 
Temnelhof  at  Berlin,  Le  Bourget  at  Paris  and 
Croydon  at  London,  the  Commerce  Department 
has  suggested  a  number  of  rules  which  should 
promote  safety.  One  la  that  no  plane  shall 
be  fueled  while  the  engine  is  running.  Another 
is  that  no  plane  shall  taxi  at  faster  than  five 
miles  per  hour;  blocks  should  always  be  placed 
in  front  of  the  wheels  before  starting  the 
engine;  the  engine  shall  not  be  started  unless 
a  competent  person  is  in  the  cockpit  or  at  the 
controls.  Safe  distances  must  always  be  main- 
tained between  aircraft  landing  or  taking  off 
at  the  same  time:  lighting  of  the  ports  for 
night-flying  shall  be  only  in  accordance  with 
methods  approved  by  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce; Undiog  and  take-off  shall  be  made  when 
practical  into  the  wind.  Many  other  regula- 
tions have  been  suggested  regarding  the  method 
and  time  of  take-off,  and  methods  of  rising 
and  of  landing. 

(Continued  M  >*gi  191) 


AIR  WONDER  STORIES 


191 


AVIATION  NEWS— Cont. 


GENERAL— Cont. 

New  Seaplane  Record  in 

Germany 

TN  a  recent  test  the  seaplane  speed  record  was 
1  lopped  by  15.1  mile*  per  boar  when  Chief 
Pilot  Starke  of  tbe  Heinkel  Airplane  Works 
flying  a  Heinkel  seaplane  and  carrying  102 
pounds  of  extra  weight  made  s  speed  of  173.28 
miles  per  hour.  Successful  experiment*  in 
Germany  with  tbe  catapulting  of  planes  from 
battleships  have  also  been  made,  and  arc 
claimed  to  give  better  results  than  the  American 
method.  Compressed  air  is  used  instead  of 
powder.  The  plane  rests  on  a  sleigh  and  is 
put  in  front  of  tbe  mouth  of  a  cylinder  con- 
taining compressed  air.  At  a  signal  tbe  air 
is  released  and  the  sleigh  and  plane  are  shot, 
in  two-thirds  of  a  second,  over  a  bridge  on 
rails  greased  with  oil.  At  the  end  of  it  the 
plane  has  enough  momentum  to  rise  immedi- 
ately. Six  experiments  were  made  and  were 
all  successful 

Cloud  Heighth  .Measurer 

AN  Indicator  to  mechanically  measure 
tha  height  of  clouds  (or  calling)  above 
an  airport  has  been  perfected  by  the  Gray- 
bar Electric  Company  aaya  Air  Trarupciuiien. 
'I  lie  indicator  consists  of  a  triangular  shaped 
Instrument  mounted  on  a  abort  galvanised 
pole  havlog  incorporated  a  acale  graduated 
In  feat  and  m  resolving  pointer.  To  got  the 
height  of  tbe  clouds,  tbe  celling  projector 
Is  Insulated  thereby  throwing  a  spotllcht 
on  the  clouds.  The  operator  sights  alone 
the  pointer  of  the  Indicator  at  the  spot- 
light and  the  height  of  the  cloud  la  read  on 
tho  Indicator  scale. 

Ground  Plane  Trainer 

A DEVICE  developed  at  the  Wright  Field 
Experimental  Flying  Station  will  give 
an  embryo  aviator  all  tbe  aenaatlons  of 
belog  In  tbe  air  without  moving;  off  tho 
■round,  says  Science.  The  "orlentor,"  aa  It 
is  called,  la  able  to  aimulate  the  control 
spparatua  of  the  cockpit  of  a  plane;  it  has 
a  propeller  and  engine  to  give  the  plane's 
baalo  movements.  The  daring  aviator  seated 
In  the  cockpit  will  hear  the  roar  of  the 
engines,  the  rush  of  air,  and  be  will  gat 
the  effects  of  loops  and  turns.  The  ap- 
paratus la  electrically  controlled. 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


THE  A  B  C  OF  AVIATION,  by  Victor 
W.  Page,  Major  U.  S.  Air  Corps  Re- 
serve, illustrated,  143  pages,  stiff  paper 
cover,  size  5x7^,  published  by  Norman 
W.  Henley  Company,  New  York  City. 
Price,  $1.00. 

For  one  who  knows  next  to  nothing  about 
aircraft  and  wants  to  see  whether  he  is  innately 
"air- minded'*  this  book  a  recommended.  Al- 
though Major  Page  writes  in  a  roorc-or-Icaa 
■utter  of  faot  manner  concerning  tbe  early  de- 
velopment of  aircraft  and  later  •  successes,  one 
gels  a  cumulative  thrill  from  his  page*.  The 
book  is  as  simply  written  as  is  possible  yet  it 
is  never  dry  or  unintereating.a  And  the  pro- 
fusion of  illustrations,  composing  well  over  a 
third  of  the  space  of  the  book,  gives  tbe  reader 
pictorially  what  the  writer  gives  verbally. 

The  book  is  naturally  divided  into  a  discussion 
i'f  tbe  lighter-than-air  and  heavier  than  -air  ma- 
chines. Each  is  gone  into  thoroughly  showing 
tbe  dynamic  principles  upon  which  they  operate, 
their  cruising  possibilities  and  then  the  details 
of  construction.  Much  that  the  reader  has 
glimpsed  vaguely  through  the  newspaper  col- 
umns will  now  become  matters  of  actuality, 
once  tht  principles  of  the  feats  the  newspapers 
acclaim  become  understood. 

Discussing  the  beaviertban-air  craft,  tbe 
writer  analyses  each  part  of  the  machine  show- 
ing just  what  each  contributes  to  the  opera- 
tion; and  tbe  detsHs  _of  construction.  To  one 
thoroughly  unversed  In  dynamics  or  even  ( in 
mathematics,  so  necessary  to  the  aeronautical 
engineer,  the  principles  of  aviation  become  dear. 
_  The  book  then  is  one  that  "whets"  the  appe- 
tite. Through  the  absorption  _of  Major  Page's 
hearty  enthusiasm  for  aviation  one  becomes 
imperceptibly  a  convert.  His  curiosity  breeds 
knowledge  and  his  knowledge  breeds  confidence. 
Aviation  no  longe'r  is  the  sport  of  the  dangerous 
and  reckless  but  a  new,  thrilling  and  on  the 
whole  safe  means  of  transportation. 


THE  AIRPLANE  AND  ITS  EN- 
GINE, by  Charles  H.  Chatfield  and 
C  Fayette  Taylor,  329  pages,  illus- 
trated, 6x8%  inches,  stiff  buckram 
cover,  published  by  McGraw-Hill  Book 
Co,  Inc.  New  York  City.  Price,  $2.50. 

Up  to  the  present  time  books  on  aeronautical 
subjects  have  been  divided  into  two  classes — 
those  that  are  written  for  tbe  interest  of  the 
multitude,  and  those  prepared  for  tbe  engineer 
or  technically  trained  persons. 

To  fill  the  gap  that  was  evident  the  authors 
of  "The  Airplane  and  Its  Engine"  have  pre- 
vented a  book  which  Is  especially  recommended 
to  that  great  majority  of  readers  who  are  more 
than  mildly  interested  in  the  science  and  prac- 
tice of  aviation. 

Several  chapters  in  this  book  are  devoted  to 
tbe  fundamentals  of  airplane  design.  Tbe 
presentation  of  tbe  factors  governing  design 
with  tbe  absence  of  complicated  fovniulae,  can- 
not but  help  to  inform  tbe  seriously  interested 
reader  of  the  importance  of  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  aerodynamics  so  vital  to  the  success  of 
an  airplane  design. 

The  writers  give  complete  discussion  of  pres- 
ent day  aircraft  engines.  The  discussion  covers 
not  only  general  principles  of  the  internal  com- 
bustion engine  but  goes  further  in  disclosing 
certain  features  of  great  importance  that  are 
required  in  the  adaption  of  a  power  plant  in 
aircraft. 

Additional  chapters  of  tbe  book  give  the 
reader  a  full  understanding  of  the  modern  air- 
plane, and  types  of  construction  that  have 
proven  themselves  to  be  practical.  In  closing, 
this  work  presents  a  complete  description  of 
modern  navigation  instruments. 

EVERYBODY'S  AVIATION  GUIDE, 
by  Victor  W.  Page,  Major,  U.  S.  Air 
Corps  Reserve,  247  pages,  illustrated, 
stiff  cloth  covers,  siie  5x7*4,  published 
by  Norman  W.  Henley  Company.  New 
York  City.  Price,  $2.00. 

This  book  like  the  "A  B  C  of  Aviation"  is  a 
book  for  beginners.  In  fset  most  of  tbe  ma- 
terial is  the  same,  as,  well  as  the  illustrations. 
But  Major  Page  has  interestingly  arranged  the 
book  in  the  form  of  some  600  Questions  and 
answers,  so  that  one  gets  his  knowledge.  In  a 
sense,  conversationally. 

The  book  is  recommended  as  a  desk  or  library 
reference,  for  it  provides  an  ( easy  manner  of 
looking  np  some  moot  or  disputed  point  on 
aviation  or  its  history. 

An  index  in  the  back  allows  one  to  find  in  a 
moment  tbe  subject  of  interest.  There  is  also 
in  the  back  a  compendium  of  the  various  world's 
records  in  aviation  for  various  types  of  craft. 
One  who  is  used  to  bearing  in  a  confused  way 
of  new  records  being  broken  every  week  finds 
it  explained  when  he  discovers  tbe  fineness  with 
which  tbe  various  craft  are  fTstSTnVd. 


AVIATION  AND  ALL  ABOUT  IT.  by 
A.  Frederick  Collins,  260  pages,  illus- 
trated, stiff  cloth  covers,  size  5x7#, 
published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Company, 
New  York  City.    Price,  $100. 
This  is  another  one  of  the  good  elementary 
books  on  aviation  that  has  come  to  our  desk. 
It  differs  somewhat  from  the  others  reviewed 
in  this  issue  in  that  the  author  devotes  quite  a 
bit  of  space  to  the  making  of  models  of  planes, 
and  the  construction  of  little  flying  devices.  In 
fact,  for  one  who  wishes  to  leam  about  aviation 
practically  and  at  first  hand,  the  construction 
of  such  models  win  serve  as  a  practical,  eco- 
nomical and  interesting,  experience.    The  writer 
gives  not  only  the  dimensions  necessary  for 
each  part  but  slao  tbe  cost  of  each  element 

The  history  of  aviation,  its  great  development 
during  the  World  War  and  the  present  status 
of  the  industry  are  all  treated  liberally  by  the 
author.  He  has  also  much  material  about  the 
application  of  varuaa  instruments  to  aircraft, 
notably  tbe  wirele9sr.and  also  tbe  elements  gov- 
erning the  construction  and  operation  of  air- 
ports and  airways. 

Tbe  uses  of  airplanes  also  receive  the  author's 
attention  with  some  fairly  detailed  material  on 
the  passenger  airways  tha{  have  been  developed 
and  the  extension  of  existing  air  routes. 

Regarding"  the  question  that  must  be  upper- 
most in  tbe  mimfo  of  tbe  average  air  enthusiast, 
"when  will  individual  flying  become  general?' 
the  author  has  a  very  interesting  statement. 

"Piloting  one's  own  airplane,"  be  says,  "is 
not  likely  to  become  a  popular  mode  of  travel 
either  for  business^  or  pleasure  until  some 
scheme  for  automatically  stabilising  the  plane 
has  been  developed.  The  machine  must  be  <Ie- 
signed  so  as  to  be  inherently  stable— that  is, 
if  a  gust  of  wind  strikes  H  and  turns  it  over, 
or  if  it  should  stall  or  start  to  fall,  it  would 
right  itself  before  reaching  the  ground  and 
land  as  gently  as  a  parachute." 


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CLINTON  MODEL  AIRPLANES 

BOYS! 

When   Buying  Model 
AIRPLANES 


Look  for  sturdy  construction. 
Every  Clinton.  Model  is  built 
of  genuine  fibre  with  wood 
bracing — real  rubber  tired  disc 
wheels.  Shock  Absorber  land- 
ing gear.  Aluminum  propeller 
and  motor  mount.  Powerful 
mo.tor  with  rubber  sealed  in 
moisture  proof  fuselage.  High 
lift  thick  wings — unbreakable. 
Lacquer  finishes  in  color. 
Waterproof.  Every  model  a 
real  tested  job.  CLINTON 
MODELS  ARE  BEAUTIES. 


PhotuKriipl 


De  Luxe  Monoplane 
Model  No.  2 

The  model  illustrated  above  is  a  Fokker  design  and 
a  marvelous  flyer.  20-inch  wing.  16-inoh  fuselage 
equipped  with  dummy  whirlwind  type  motor.  Adjust- 
able for  altitude,  speed  and  distance  flights.  Cabin 
fuselage.  Orange  airplane  lacquer  finish.  Flight  range 
50  to  300  [eet.  Price  complete  ready-to-fly  packed 
in  special  case,  ,4,90  po,tpald. 


HERE  IS  A  BRAND  NEW  LINE 
OF  FLYING  MODELS/ 

Both  Ready -to -Fly   and   Construction  Outfits. 
Every  One  a  Winner  and  So  Low  in  Price  That 
You  May  Easily  Own  One 

MODEL  NO-  1 

Illustrated  at  the  right.  Fast 
long-flying  model.  17-inch 
wing  spread.  12-inch  fuse- 
lage. Pilot's  cock-pit  in  front 
of  wing.  Red  lacquer  finish. 
Waterproof.  Has  flown  150 
feet.  Used  by  model  clubs 
extensively.  Shipped  ready- 
to-fly  in  special  model  pack- 
ing case. 

Price  Postpaid  $3.00 


Clinton  Model  Airplane 
Construction  Outfit 


/;  buiUs  #»y-. 

omc  »/  I  ill- 

jrrenl  flyltO 
moiiU.  4>, 
of  St.  t.ouii. 
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BOYS — Just  think  of  building  and  flying  one  of  these,  wonder- 
ful airplanes.   24-inch  wing.    18-inch  fuselage.  DuninSwnotor 
— full  size  drawings — ALL  PARTS  CUT  TO  SIZE.  51JST, 
LAY  them  on  the  drawings  and  assemble.    Enter  your  mo 
in  contests.   Flies  over  300  feet  when  properly  built.  I'RIC, 
IN  DOUBLE  BOX-        POSTAGE  FREE  Si.t 


v-  Tiie  Clinton  Radial  Motor  is  a  win- 
tief — no  model  complete  wi tout  oiy 
—feather  lite  weight.    ,  m- 

Poatpnid  Only  50c. '  • 


Clinton  Airplanes 
Really  Fly 

A  New  Catalog  of  Models 
with  pictures  In  colors  is 
Ready  {or  You— Only  IOc. 

If  jnor  Uriilrr  runnnl   «ii|i|tl.v  yon 

m:m>  yOUB  0BVK8  TO 

The  Clinton  Toy  Corp. 

DEPT.  9 

NORTH  HAVEN  CONN. 


BOSS  —  Haw    would    ynu  tiki- 
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Your      local  department 
»torr    can    rccrlvc  our 
club  plan  lor  (he  ask- 
ing.     Free  Lrftnona. 
Have     your  Htore 
write    to  ua. 


Drawings  and  instructions: 

One-quarter  size   25c 

Full  size     $0c 

Loop  Glider   25: 

Jumbo  Glider  ._   SOc 

Twin  Pusher   75c 

File.  M0  Kcot/